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Last week, on Thursday (April 21, 2011), the Supreme Court of Pakistan acquitted all but one accused of gang rape of Mukhtara Mai, the woman from a poor working class family in Muzaffargarh (southern part of Punjab province). The court’s decision has shocked the nation and particularly human rights activists and organizations who view Mai as an icon of feminine courage in standing up against the cruelty inflicted on her.
Mukhtara Mai was gang raped in her village in 2002 after a local council (panchayat), hearing a case of Mai’s brother’s alleged affair with a lady of relatively upper social class, decided that Mai be sent before the tribesmen of the lady’s family with whom Mai’s teenage brother had an alleged affair. Mai’s brother had already been abducted and sodomized forcibly by men from that family. When Mai was made to appear before the men, in June 2002, she was abducted and raped by a gang of men. Adding to that, she was paraded naked in the village to soothe the last nerve of cruelty.
With human rights organizations and media supporting Mai to stand up to the injustice, Mai filed a case against the rapists. Of the 14 accused, 8 were released by the Dera Gahzi Khan Anti-Terrorism Court in September 2002 while the remaining 6 were sentenced to death. And now, after about 9 years, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has acquitted 5 of the remaining accused who were convicted by the Anti-Terrorism Court in 2002. Only one accused, named Abdul Khaliq, has been sentenced to life-imprisonment (in Pakistan’s law amounting usually to a maximum of 25 years). The apex court has acquitted the five accused on the grounds of insufficient evidence, more specifically because DNA tests of the victim and rapists were not available.
Human rights and women rights organizations have expressed grave resentment over the apex court’s decision. Mai herself has expressed utter disappointment and stated that the court ignored the ample evidence against the rapists. She says that she now feels very unsafe as the criminals are at large once again. Lawyer Yasser Latif Hamdani commented in Daily Times that the verdict of the apex court will embolden the criminal elements in the country. Dawn reports that Mai’s lawyer Barrister Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan will soon file a review petition against the verdict of the Supreme Court.
After all said and done, April 21, 2011, is likely to be remembered as a dark day in the history of human rights, particularly women rights in Pakistan. It has slapped the nation with the question where to go when the highest authority standing for justice fails to provide the same.
