According to HRCP, an incident of rape occurs every two hours and a gang rape every four to eight days.
LAHORE: Patriarchal societies like Pakistan treat women as property rather than as human beings with rights equal to those of men. Access to justice for women in Pakistan has a long and chequered history. Rape is difficult to eliminate completely but strengthening the laws pertaining to rape and successfully prosecuting and punishing rapists may be a reasonably effective deterrent.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), an incident of rape occurs every two hours and a gang rape every four to eight days. As we know, rape is seen in most countries as a crime against the state. However, in Pakistan, time and again, we have seen that the state has absolved itself of that responsibility. In recent years, female parliamentarians and activists, who are not dependent on foreign funding, have been campaigning to bring the issue of reviewing the laws on rape to the state’s notice. It is suggested that the legal requirement of four male witnesses to prove a case of rape should now be replaced with scientific evidence, such as DNA, and so on. For instance, advanced countries have adopted modern techniques, especially DNA testing, to identify rapists and to vindicate the innocent.
In a country like Pakistan, where the criminal justice system does not usually deliver and can be manipulated by the rich and corrupt for their own benefits, our lawmakers need to initiate a debate in parliament over the use of DNA as evidence in a court of law, especially in cases of rape.
Sarmad Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, October 13th, 2013.
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