The South Asia Politics, News, and Analysis Thread

The accusations have rocked the country, drawing the attention and condemnation of human rights activists and politicians in a case that involved subjects long considered taboo here.

At least 280 children under the age of 14 from three villages in eastern Punjab Province were said to have been subjected to sexual abuse by a gang of 15 men, who made videos to extort money from the children and their parents. Seven of the accused have been arrested, police officials said Sunday.

The accusations of abuse started trickling out last month as victims began to report it to the police, and last Tuesday, hundreds of residents staged a protest, accusing the police and local politicians of protecting the gang members and ignoring the accusations. Some of the protesters clashed with the police, and dozens of people were injured, including several police officers.

On Saturday, details of the abuse were carried by The Nation, a Lahore-based English-language newspaper, which reported that the gang members had drugged and intoxicated their victims, some as young as 6, and had recorded hundreds of videos. Some of the children stole jewelry and money from their parents to pay the men to stop them from making the videos public, according to the reports. The newspaper said many of the videos were sold to buyers and pornographic websites overseas.

The coverage prompted an outpouring of outrage on social media, especially on Twitter.

Pedophilia remains a taboo subject in Pakistani society. Human rights activists say that child abuse is rampant in the country and that homeless children, as many as 1.5 million according to some estimates, are particularly vulnerable.

However, provincial officials in Punjab played down the scale of the abuse and said that only seven cases had been registered by the police so far and that they were in possession of only 30 videos.

Most of the victims and gang members are from Hussain Khan Wala, a dusty farming village in the Kasur District of Punjab Province, near the border with India and about an hour’s drive from Lahore, the provincial capital.

“This group was active since 2007 when they were school students,” Shahzad Sultan, a senior police official said in an interview on Sunday, referring to the suspects. He said most of the videos involved consensual sex between teenagers.

Local police officials say the allegations became public only after a land dispute arose between two rival groups in the village. Mr. Sultan said that the videos of consensual sex were being used now as part of an effort by one party in the dispute to discredit or intimidate members of the other group with accusations of child abuse. “The videos are old,” he said.

The man identified as the main suspect, Haseem Amir, said in an interview that his uncle had bought the land under dispute now and that members of another family who opposed the sale were now accusing him and his friends of child abuse.

The seven suspects who were arrested are ages 16 to 25. Mr. Amir, 25, denied that he was involved in blackmail and extortion. “We made some mistakes while we were teenagers in school,” he said, alluding to the sex videos. “We used to record videos and share with one another just for fun.”

But Muhammad Ashraf, the father of one of the accusers, who filed a complaint to the police on Sunday, said his son, 20, was abused as a student five years ago, but did not tell the family at the time.

After video clips surfaced about two months ago, “we came to know about it,” Mr. Ashraf said.

“My son was disturbed and sad,” Mr. Ashraf said. “He asked us to lodge the case. He used to steal money and some valuables, and says he used to give it to the blackmailers.”

In one video, a boy is seen crying after he is sexually abused, and tries to cover his face with a hand to hide from the camera. In another video, a man orders a boy to smile as he films him while the boy is abused.

A senior police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of offending local sensibilities, said the case involved a “mixture of social deviants” and behaviors that reflected changes in Pakistani society. “Such acts of teenage homosexuality are becoming common practice,” the officer said.

Opposition politicians said over the weekend that they planned to take up the issue of child abuse in Parliament on Monday.

Twenty fourth-year medical students are learning how to examine a patient with a throat infection. Today's lesson is as much about patient care as it is the anatomy of the throat.

The patient is real, a woman, and the instructor invites several of the female students to examine her, since cultural sensitivities dictate that she does not want to be inspected by a man. The instructor has his pick, since there are 17 women and three men in this group of students.

It is almost as if men are an endangered species in Pakistan's medical colleges.

"Catching a husband"

The government body that regulates the medical profession, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), says more than 70% of medical students are women.

Competition to get into these medical colleges is tough - at one college I was told that they receive 10,000 applications for a 100 places. In the more prestigious colleges, students must get 90% grades or more in order to be considered.

I ask one male student why the women were outshining the men. He is in his fifth year, specialising in ear, nose and throat. "Boys go out, hang out with their friends," he says. "Girls can't go out as much, so they stay at home and rote-learn."

In other words, perhaps the success of women students is not so much their own hard work, it is embedded in the culture of keeping girls at home.

And government figures suggest most of these bright female undergraduate doctors do not actually go on to practise. Only 23% of registered doctors are female.

Hot ticket

The vice-chancellor of the prestigious Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto medical university in Islamabad, Dr Javed Akram, says that girls are more focused on excelling academically than boys.

At the same time, he accepts that some female students are more keen on catching a husband than on pursuing a career.

"It's much easier for girls to get married once they are doctors and many girls don't really intend to work as professional doctors," he says.

"I know of hundreds of hundreds of female students who have qualified as a doctor or a dentist but they have never touched a patient."

Privately, many doctors - both male and female - tell me that a medical degree is an extremely hot ticket in the marriage market.

To confirm this claim, I visit the Aisha Marriage Bureau run by Kamran Ahmed and his wife. Business is so good they are opening their second branch in Islamabad.

Mr Ahmed says his best clients are mothers seeking doctor wives for their sons. "In social gatherings, it's very prestigious to introduce your daughter-in-law or wife as a doctor."

And he says if a young female doctor is even a little good-looking, then finding a match for her is a breeze. "By the way, if you know of any single doctor girls, please let me know. I have boys who are looking," he adds in a cheeky aside.

But the "doctor wife" is more than a trophy: her absence from hospitals has serious implications on the healthcare system of a poor country like Pakistan.

The government spends millions of rupees on subsidies per student - yet there is a serious shortage of doctors, especially in rural areas where women prefer to be examined by female doctors.

"More women-friendly"

Dr Shaista Faisal is an official with the PMDC whose research into the subject led the council to try and introduce a limit on the number of women being admitted to medical colleges.

When news of the "quota" on male-female admissions broke in the local media it quickly drew flak and controversy. But the PMDC insists it is the only solution.

"It's not a quota. We want 50% of admissions to be for males and 50% for females," Dr Faisal says, a little defensively.

"It's not discrimination. I don't think we're allowing boys who don't study to get into medical schools. This shortage of doctors is the biggest challenge to Pakistan's health system."

Human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar strongly disagrees. "The wrong here is that women are being discriminated against here for being too smart."

Mr Akbar has filed a petition in court challenging the decision to introduce the "quota". He calls it unconstitutional and says the government should encourage women to stay in the profession instead.

"The answer is that they have to make the working environment more women-friendly rather than saying, no, you can't be a doctor because you end up leaving the profession."

Columnist Fasi Zaka also believes that the government has the wrong end of the stick.

"Yes, doctors are leaving, but the restrictions should be at the point of exit rather than entry." He suggests asking those who fail to practise to reimburse the government the large sums it costs to train them.

Back at the medical school, two starry-eyed female students tell me they are determined to become doctors. But if they were asked to choose between their careers or their families, which would it be?

"I'd try to convince them," says 20-year-old Eliya Khawar. "But if they aren't, I'd choose family."

Her classmate Manza Maqsood concurs. "Family. In our culture, family always comes first."

Everyone seems to agree on the diagnosis of the problem, but not on the cure. Maybe, it's time to introduce a quota for women with pushy families.