Child maid abuse case: Judgment suspended as judge, wife appeal conviction

IHC division bench orders couple to submit surety bonds, directs to fix case for second week of May

ISLAMABAD: A one-year sentence handed to a judge and his wife, for mistreating and torturing a 10-year-old housemaid employed at their home, was suspended on Monday after the couple challenged the conviction.

An Islamabad High Court (IHC) division bench, comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, suspended on Monday the sentence issued by Justice Aamer Farooq on April 17 while hearing the criminal appeal filed by the judge and his wife.

The couple had filed their appeal on Friday, April 20. The division bench had subsequently issued notices to the minor and the state to appear on Monday.

Suspending the sentence, the court directed the case to be fixed in the second week of May.

Justice Farooq had sentenced the judge and his wife to serve a year in prison and fined them Rs50,000 each under Section 328-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).



The couple, however, could not be arrested since they obtained bail after submitting sureties of Rs50,000 each just a few hours after their sentence had been pronounced.

In the appeal, the couple through their counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi and Raja Farooq Haider, requested the court to set aside the judgment of April 17 on grounds that the conviction to the extent of section 328-A of Pakistan Penal Code was based upon speculation, presumption, surmises, conjectures and motive and action of the section can’t be presumed by the court.

In the appeal, the counsel for the couple said that the “impugned judgment clearly depicts that evidence/data available on the record was not properly looked into by learned single judge in Chamber and imposed his own findings which are contrary to law and record.”



Their counsels seem to have turned to the very legal playbooks which Raja was taught to dispense justice to form the basis of their appeal.

They maintained that the judgment shows that evidence available on the record was not seen by the court and that the appellants were convicted on the basis of whims.

“It is a fundamental principle of criminal cases that benefit of every doubt is extended in favour of the accused, but in this case, the prosecution is blessed with the benefit of doubt and conviction is based upon surmises.”

The petition read that the court “had to convict the appellant in any case, thus all benefits were extended in favour of the prosecution in violation of the law on the subject.”

They have questioned that where is the evidence of assault, ill-treat, neglect, abandon or any act or omission which resulted into harm and when the accused have been acquitted on charges of harm – under section 337-A(i)/337-F(i)/506(ii) of Pakistan Penal Code – how someone can be punished under section 328-A of Pakistan Penal Code.

Among several questions, the counsel has asked if the “prosecution was able to prove that neglect, abandon act, omission, assault or ill-treat was ‘willfully’,” as they asked if it is not willful then what would be the situation.



“Prosecution has been able to prove the charge under section 328-A Pakistan Penal Code, hence the accused persons both are jointly responsible for it and are accordingly convicted,” Justice Farooq had stated in the judgment.

“Both the accused have admitted that the girl* was working as maid at their house thus was in their care,” Justice Farooq stated, adding “Raja, being the head of the family and Zafar being responsible for the daily domestic affairs, were jointly responsible for looking after and taking care of the child.”

The court would now resume hearing in the second week of May. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2018.