Mai supporters decry setback to women rights

Verdict seen as a major blow to women who speak out against injustice.

In a show of support for rape victim Mukhtaran Mai after the Supreme Court verdict left her sympathisers dejected, parliamentarians and experts expressed their dismay on Friday and urged for an effective and impartial criminal justice system.

Speaking on a point of order in the National Assembly, Sherry Rehman asked the government to not just provide security to Mukhtaran Mai, but to file a review appeal in the Supreme Court.

In its decision yesterday, the Supreme Court acquitted five of the six accused of raping Mukhtaran Mai. One of them was served a life sentence.

“Mukhtara Mai has been fighting for justice for nine years now. Clearly, the evidence that would assist the court has been tampered with at the behest of local influentials,” she said, according to a press release.

Rehman added that there was a need to review the system of police investigations. “We may not be able to hold back the wave of violence against women all over the country, but it is important to act when we can, and where we can, so that impunity does not remain an everyday option,” she added.

The member of National Assembly was of the view that it is traumatic enough for a woman to report a rape.

ActionAid Pakistan raised serious concerns over gaps in the legal system that led to acquittal of the accused. The agency feared that a “bad precedence” would discourage women from raising voice against violence, and would pave the way for more heinous crimes against women in future.

In a statement issued on Friday, ActionAid Pakistan’s Country Director Jemal Ahmed termed absence of women’s representation in the most strategic institutions like the medico-legal system, courts, lawyers and police to be responsible for restricting their access to justice. The agency condemned the patriarchal mindset behind social, political and legal injustice towards women.

Earlier, Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid said not a single person in Pakistan had been convicted on rape charges in the last ten years.

Another expert, while talking to The Express Tribune, said the fundamental and crucial statement in any rape case across the world is of the rape victim. He said “The victim’s statement is always taken as the most important evidence in the case, but in Pakistan it is not given its due importance.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2011.