Adil Najam
This is a sad and difficult post to write.
Today, the Supreme Court of Pakistan gave its verdict on Mukhtar (Mukhtaran) Mai’s appeal against an earlier verdict by the Lahore High Court (LHC).
The three-judge bench decided to uphold the LHC verdict. This means that the earlier decision will hold; of the six accused of Mukhtaran Mai’s gang rape, five are acquitted and a sixth will complete the life imprisonment that had already been awarded to him.
The exact wording and precise details of the judgment are not yet available, but here are the details as of now, as reported in Dawn:
ISLAMABAD: Upholding the Lahore High Court’s verdict, the Supreme Court’s three-judge bench acquitted five out of six suspects in the Mukhtaran Mai case on Thursday, DawnNews reported. However, the sixth suspect, Abdul Khalique will complete his life imprisonment sentence, the court stated in its verdict.
Speaking to journalists outside the Supreme Court, Mukhtaran Mai voiced a lack of confidence on the verdict and said that she that had lost faith in the judicial system. Human Rights organizations also condemned the release of the suspects in the Mukhtaran Mai case. When asked about a review of the Supreme Court’s verdict, Mukhtaran Mai said she would take a decision on the matter after conferring with her lawyers.
Mukhtaran Mai was represented by public prosecutor, Advocate Atizaz Hassan.
In the Mukhtaran Mai case, Police submitted a challan against 14 suspects in the Anti-Terrorism Court in July 2002. The court declared the death sentence to six suspects and released the other eight. After the verdict of the Anti-Terrorism Court was handed out, five suspects were released by the Lahore High Court’s Multan bench. Whereas, one suspect’s death sentence was changed to life imprisonment.
“I did not receive justice today, hence I have left my fate in the hands of God,” Mukhtaran Mai said while speaking to journalists from her house later. “The release of the suspects has put my life in grave danger,” she added.
We have written before about our respect for Mukhtar Mai, and how I have admired the grace and dignity under adversity that she has come to embody (here, here and here). I have detailed my own encounter with her and recounted how I saw this grace and dignity in practice. My view of her as a person and my dejection – certainly sadness, and even anger – at the decision of the three-judge bench cannot, therefore, be a surprise to anyone.
The verdict is not just a blow for Mukhtaran Mai (and the release of the accused could heighten the treats against her life) but it can and will be seen as another limp response to rape as a crime, a reflection of societal chauvinism, and a blow to womens’ rights in the country. Most importantly, the practical manifestation of the decision will be to deny closure to and to bring back into painful scrutiny the life of a woman who has already been through so much – too much – pain.
For all these reasons I am sad and angry at the decision. Of course, I realize that courts are meant to make decisions on the evidence available and the laws as stated (in principle, the system of justice works only if the idea that everyone – even the patently guilty – is innocent until proven guilty) and also that to accept the principle of an independent judiciary is also to accept the fact that the judiciary will sometimes make decisions that we will not like or agree with. Since I was not privy to the proceedings or to the details of the judgment from the three-judge bench, I do not know the legal minutia on which the judges made their decision. But, this is what I do know: I know that the social and political shadows of this decision will be deep and long – certainly for Mukhtaran Mai herself, but for all women, and for all of society in Pakistan.
For all these reasons, I believe that the next step has to be to go back to the courts. I hope that Mukhtaran Mai will not allow the case to die just yet. My understanding is that the three bench decision can still be appealed once before the full bench of the Supreme Court. I hope that Mukhtar and her legal team will do so.
I realize the emotional cost of such a decision on Mukhtaran, especially given just how long this case dragged in the Supreme Court the first time around. But I also know the importance of doing so, if only for advancing the judicial discourse on this important issue.
What happened to Mukhtaran Mai cannot be reversed, nor will society’s imbeded prejudices be over-turned by any one decision. But for those of us who believe that societal sanction for violence against women has to be over-turned, the battle for justice must go on; no matter how disheartened, sad or angry we may be at any one decision on any one day.
On the Twitter account in Mukhtar Mai’s name, a recent message read: “No court can weaken my resolve to stand against injustice.” I cannot agree with that sentiment more.
I think this is an example of unfair behaviour on part of the law agencies becuase they should buy Online Jewelry
Dear All (especially Adil Najam and Owais Mughal),
I am regular reader of ATP and hardly ever miss your posts. I am sure you deserve a lot of But I am simply amazed and disgusted to see this post and the comments made on it and ultimately the euphoria which everyone is trying to create.
Before going ahead further with this unwise onslaught against the judiciary, would you (and others) please read the decisions of the trial court (which includes Mukhtara’s statement and cross examination as a witness), the first appellate court and the Supreme Court in detail. During her cross examination she was asked ‘did these people in panchayat order that you should be r***d?’ to this she replied ‘No, but this is what they wanted’. Is it possible to rule against the people of panchayat after this statement. For heavens sake have some sense and at least read the basic materials.
You did it earlier on the issue of CJ’s mandatory advise on appointment of judges.
@ Muhammad Yusha
Professor Masud ul Hassan has narrated this incident of Abu Shahma (RA) in his famous biography of Umar (RA). Furthermore, search “Umar flogged his son, wine”; you will find plenty of resources quoting this incident. Although there are conflicting opinions over background of the incident and whether the remaining flogs were struck on the body or grave of Abu Shahma (RA), but it is a true fact of history that the mightiest caliph of history did not spare his own son to uphold Justice, the very base of a strong and peaceful society. (Today’s leaders are doing every bit to save their sons from being convicted or punished for corruption and embezzlement in public money and even Hajj finances)
Yes I agree with you that the low crime rate in KSA is due to apt punishment for crimes and not because it is being carried out across the board. But at least it is preventing masses from going astray. I myself am abhorrently critical of lifestyles of the present day rulers of Muslim countries (almost all of them), but this is a separate discussion.
@ Asim
As Muhammad Yush Put it very correctly, Islam is the only religion (code of life) which Allah SWT has set for mankind starting from Adam (AS) and Eve (AS). At different times, progressive shariahs were delivered through Allah’s messengers to carry, re-enforce and strengthen the Message of Allah, to dismantle and banish any man-made variations in divine rules and to provide solutions to issues arising in different phases of evolution of human society.
All the messengers and prophets carried the same message and same religion onwards which eventually was consolidated by the last messenger Muhammad (PBUH). This is why we understand that all the messengers and prophets of Allah SWT were Muslim and carried the religion of Islam. The status of Muhammad (PBUH) as Imam-ul-Anbiyaa (leader of prophets) is due to his role of consolidation of Allah’s religion.
Again Muhammad Yusha is right in saying that situations and conflicts were created by mankind and Allah has knowledge of all the past, present and future problems. Numerous scientific discoveries specially in 20th century have proven the Quranic revelations; many such verses still await expansion of human knowledge and research to verify Allah’s supremacy over the universe.
The literary, scientific and economic backwardness of Muslims is exactly what I hinted in my previous comment, i.e. because they were made and kept ignorant of true message of Quran. How many of us have actually read Quran with translation??? And those who claim to be religious scholars or ulema have dedicated their work on beliefs rather than application of the rules of life set by Almighty. But if one or more or even all the segments of society have not honestly and comprehensively done what they were required to do, this does not mean that we dont or cant learn and apply the teachings by ourselves or that we start criticizing or hating Islam or that start ridiculing Allah SWT (as Asim seems to be doing). May Allah show all of us the right path and grant capacity and will to follow it.
This is my last comment on this discussion.
This verdict is terrible. At the same time, how many promises did Mukhtaran Mai fulfill after gaining publicity, concerning helping women who were abused like herself?
@Naan Haleem: Can you provide me a reference to the story of the Hafiz drinking wine. Furthermore, the crime rate in Saudi Arabia is not low because of justice (i.e. punishing relatives if found guilty), but because of the strictness of the punishments, like hand cutting.
@Asim: I know you haven’t asked me but your questions are so simple, I can’t help replying.
>>> if God made all these religions, dont ya think He would have done a better job and thought about future situations and conflicts?
God didn’t make religions. People invented religions. As far as situations and conflicts are concerned, they are also man made.
>>>Then why didnt God release Islam before all the other religions and kept it the only religion on earth.
God did. Adam and Eve were Muslims.
>>>if Quran has answers to everything, then why muslims havent learnt anything from it in the past 1000 years and what reason do you have that muslims will learn anything from it in the next 1000 years?
If you can elaborate on what you mean by learnt anything, I might be in a better position to reply.
Jutice delayed and finally delayed.
http://ihaveadream-pakistan.blogspot.com/2011/04/w ake-up-call-youth-of-pakistan.html