I really really thought this story was over with, i assumed justice was done..and the victim had a chance of rebuilding a part of her life..i can’t imagine what must be going through her head to see the people who destroyed her life walk free in the same village again..
The acquittal of five men convicted in a high-profile gang-rape case in the Pakistani province of Punjab has drawn sharp criticism from rights groups.
Women’s organisations have described the acquittals as “shocking and unbelievable”.
A Pakistani tribal council allegedly ordered the rape of Mukhtar Mai in February 2002 as punishment for a rape falsely attributed to her brother.
Six men were convicted of Ms Mai’s rape five of whom have now been set free.
Security concerns
“We are all in a state of shock. This was such a well-known case that we couldn’t imagine such a thing would happen,” Farzana Bari, director of the Centre for Excellence in Gender Studies at the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad told BBC News Online.
Im sorry, but from a judicial point of view, the judge did not have much of a choice. It was the prosecution that failed Mukhtar Mai, not the judge. The prosecution relied on the media hype and frenzy that this case created, and failed to make any semblance of a case against the indictees, presuming that they would be found guilty, since, well, they were guilty. But they forgot the fact that they had to 'prove' that in court. Their presumption worked the first time around in the circuit court, but the High Court found the shoddy prosecution and loopholes to be large enough to drop the convictions, which was done not out of favor to anyone, but as a service to justice.
What the judge should have done was grant a new trial, but he chose to take the simpler route of dropping the charges. Now lets hope the prosecution doesnt just take newspaper clippings to the Supreme Court, and prepares a healthy case against those jerkoffs.
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The panchayat in Meerwala, southern Punjab, had found Ms Mai's younger brother, Shakoor, guilty of raping a girl from the village's powerful Mastoi clan.
It was later revealed in a conventional court that the 12-year-old had in fact been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by the same men who later made up his jury.
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More on the enlightened Punjab. Where did the Karachi bashing thread go? Hmmmmm.
You know, with all the public outrage and media coverage of this case, I actually thought they would have the decency to actually punish these sick, perverted, criminals. Usually, these cases go unnoticed and the criminals get away with it. It's sick, pathetic and incredibly sad that despite international attention on this case, they have been set free. Nice message they just sent out to people who want to molest children and rape women. By all means, go ahead. No one will punish you.
I disagree, when the need comes the Supreme Court has even used newspaper clippings to decide major constitutional decisions…army dictators openly flout the law of the land..why not flout it to punish people who so obviously deserve it?
Well, the prosecution definitely messed up. The evidence gathering techniques, forensic evidence, and witnesses accounts were faulty according to many newspapers. Also, there's a theory that the local authorities didn't put forward a strong case from the beginning in order to favor the 'panchayat' which ordered the rape.
The courts cannot and should not make decisions based on emotional circumstances. It's the evidence that counts. In this case, the ill-trained and corrupt police is to be blamed and not the courts.
this news has been all over the press for ages now
this whole news item has me confused from the beginning
what i dont get is: the panchayat ordered these men to do what they did....so in this scenario who's to blame...? the ppl who made the ruling and participated in the panchayat? or the ppl of the village who supported that panchayat? seems like the whole society is to be blamed for still being enmeshed in such un-Islamic customs....coz it seems like these r the rules that are being followed there....and it was perfectly ok for the panchayat to order such a thing to happen?
most ppl in villages treat the panchayat with absolute respect. maybe in this case it got influenced by bigger local powers and this kind of ruling was not the norm? i dont know
and how do our law enforcement agencies exercise authority on local law making bodies (panchayat/jirga) in rural/tribal areas? i think its time our govt took some steps to figure this issue out and bring abt gradual changes accordingly....honor killings was one such issue and laws have been passed against it now...ppl r still committing them though...these ppl firmly believe in these customs and their thinking is based on their own deep-rooted traditions...
i dono...there seem to be a lot of missing pieces in this story and too many questions/issues to think abt to give any kind of firm statement...the only thing that can be said is that the poor woman had to suffer thru barbarism...
i wonder what happenned in the past in such cases? why did this particular case get so much publicity?
only a local from these areas who understands all the dynamics of this situation can give a proper answer coz i feel like the way things have been covered by the media, things have been totally taken out of context and real issues that r the root of the problem have been sidelined. the plight of the woman is ofcourse something that deservs utmost sympathy…but moving beyond this incident towards a longlasting solution needs a deeper and wider analysis i reckon…
in the village the panchayat is the supreme judicial body
and the panchayat ordered these men to do what they did
not taking away from the sufferring of Mukhtar Mai but i dont even deem it fit to simply just absolve everyone else of blame and punish these 5 men
these 5 men, the panchayat, the village, the society, the whole nation…r all to blame…
these ppl dont even know whats right and whats wrong according to shariah and have their independent judicial system set up…they’re still following their age old customs…govt has so far been unsucessful in impressing upon them the importance of state laws (just like jirgas in the frontier)
just like in honor killings..u cant just take the guy who kills his sister and hang him…coz he DEEPLY BELIEVES that what he is doing is right…try convincing him that what he did is wrong and its not going to affect him coz he’s been brought up to believe this and this is what his doctrines teach him and his immediate local society supports it too
so its like this whole cycle needs to be broken and these ppl need to be educated and these local panchayats/jirgas need to be done away with and be replaced with state law enforcement agencies like police…and that responsibility falls on everyone’s shoulders…
irem, what is certain is that the men who raped her deserve the death penalty. your actions dont become less punishable because someone told you to do them.
