Day: September 6, 2012

By: Mithal Khuhro

KHAIRPUR: Fed up with the injustice, a Hindu rape survivor has warned she will commit suicide by setting herself on fire outside the Supreme Court building. The married woman was allegedly gang-raped by influential men of the Allah Rakhio Mahar village. The family went to the police, who refused to register the case against the suspects.

When they filed a complaint in a Khaipur court, the Bheels were beaten and forced to flee their homes.

Talking to the press outside the session’s court building on Monday, the woman said that police were not taking action against the culprits as they supported the criminals.

“I lost my honour and shelter as well, but the law isn’t coming to help me,” she complained. “I fear they will kill my husband and other family members.” The woman said that the elders were trying to pressure the family into talks with her rapists. “I’ll even go to the Supreme Court for justice and will commit self-immolation if the culprits are not arrested,” she warned.

The Express Tribune

By: Umer Farooq

PESHAWAR: While the Peshawar Family Court is left with three days to decide the runaway Afghan couple’s case, legal experts say the case is beyond the jurisdiction of Pakistani courts.

Chief justice of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) Dost Muhammad Khan had taken a suo motu notice of the death threats given to the Afghan couple that ran away from Afghanistan in May and got married in Abbottabad.

The court then asked authorities to produce the couple before the PHC and later gave the family court 40 days to resolve the dispute over conjugal rights between two Afghan nationals Abdul Rehman 60, and Haiwad 23 over a 22-year-old woman named Maryam.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Quratulain asked Maryam to submit her reply against Rehman’s claim that she has been his wife since 2006. The hearing will resume today (Thursday).

Legal experts say, however, that the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961, under which the case is being heard, only applies for the Muslim citizens of Pakistan. Cases involving foreign nationals do not fall under the jurisdiction of family courts.

Rehman’s counsel Ejaz Sabi said that under Section 5 of the Family Court Act, the jurisdiction of the family court is subject to the provision of the Family Court Ordinance 1961. He said that according to the 1961 Ordinance, the law is not applicable for non-Muslims and non-Pakistanis.

“This is beyond the jurisdictions of a Pakistani court and my humble view is that the chief justice of the PHC has gone beyond the mandate of the law,” said Sabi.

“The law clearly says that it is only for Pakistani Muslim citizens,” said PHC Bar Association’s President Abdul Latif Afridi. If any Afghan national or any other foreigner commits a crime and violates Pakistani law, they should be treated under the relevant section of the Pakistan Penal Code, he said.

The Express Tribune

By: Bakhtullah Jan

SHERGARH: Three youth were arrested in Hafizabad, Mardan on Tuesday for raping and killing a nine-year-old girl. Lund Khwar police SHO Fazal Subhan said that the father of the child filed a report saying that his daughter went missing on her way home from school on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday, her body, bearing torture marks, was found in a cornfield near their house.

The body was taken to the District Headquarters Hospital for an autopsy, which revealed that the girl was sexually assaulted multiple times and then killed. After the funeral prayers on Wednesday evening, the police arrested two brothers, Zain* and Wajahat*, aged 19 and 20 respectively, and 18-year-old Riaz*as suspects.

“People told us that these three boys were standing outside the school when it finished, and were witnessed talking to the girl,” the SHO said. However, before the police could begin interrogation, the suspects confessed.

They said that after committing the crime they gave the girl Rs300 and told her not to say anything. They further told the police that she was crying and bleeding severely. SHO Subhan said that the suspects began beating the girl to make her stop crying and then put clay in her mouth after which she passed out. She died soon after. Police said that the boys threw the bag into a sugarcane field, but then came back late at night and shifted the body to a cornfield near the victim’s house.

SHO Subhan said that on Wednesday, the alleged rapists told another child to go to the victim’s house and tell her father that his daughter’s body had been found near their house. The accused further told the police that they threw the body near the girl’s house to make it easier for the family to find her.

The Express Tribune