In a move that will be believed when seen, given Pakistan’s jihadist, Islamic supremacist and abusive reputation, “Pakistan has installed a new law requiring the establishment of special courts to speedily conclude trials of people charged with raping women or children, a move hailed by rights activists.”
Rape cases in Pakistan “could drag on for years,” but the new law “will lapse if Parliament does not approve it within 120 days.” So we’ll see whether this is genuine or a charade, and whether it will actually be effective if implemented. Should it be successfully implemented, it will be a major win for the rights of women in Pakistan, but not necessarily infidel women, who are often raped and forcefully converted to Islam. Then their attackers lied about their having willingly complied.
Women in Pakistan also have little opportunity even to establish a case of rape. According to Human Rights Watch, “Women, religious minorities, and transgender people face violent attacks, discrimination, and government persecution, with authorities failing to provide adequate protection or hold perpetrators accountable.” All these groups are also considered inferior in normative Islam. The report by the Associated Press below indicates that “1,000 women are fall victims annually to honour killings related to ‘love and marriage,'” but in addition to that number, a study by the Movement for Solidarity and Peace Pakistan states that “as many as 1,000 Christian and Hindu women and girls are abducted, forcefully married, and forcefully converted to Islam every year.”
“Pakistan issues new law for speedy trials of alleged rapists,” by Munir Ahmed, Associated Press, December 15, 2020:
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s president on Tuesday issued a much-awaited new law requiring the establishment of special courts to speedily conclude trials of people charged with raping women or children, a move hailed by rights activists.
The law, which must be approved by Parliament to remain in effect, requires courts to conclude the trials of alleged rapists and issue verdicts within four months. It also prohibits the disclosure of the identity of rape victims, according to a statement released by President Arif Alvi’s office on Twitter.
The statement provided few additional details. Leading Pakistani English-language newspaper The Dawn reported that under the new law any official who shows negligence in investigating rape cases could face a three-year prison sentence. The paper also reported that repeat offenders could be chemically castrated.
Suspects found guilty of raping women and children potentially face a death sentence in Pakistan.
The new law comes months after Prime Minister Imran Khan promised to remove deficiencies in existing laws to ensure speedy justice for rape victims.
Khan recently also hinted at public executions or surgical castration of convicted rapists after two assailants gang raped a woman on a deserted highway near the eastern city of Lahore in September. The attack shocked Pakistan, even though attacks violence women is common in the deeply conservative Muslim country……
….Nearly 1,000 women are killed in Pakistan each year in so-called “honour killings” for allegedly violating conservative norms on love and marriage.
Infidel says
I think this law is only for muslim on muslimah rape: I doubt that it’ll even touch all those cases of muslims who kidnap non-muslim schoolgirls, convert and ‘marry’ them and then later claim publicy that those girls converted to islam of their own free will
mortimer says
Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology will find a way to block any attempt to protect women from violent predators, leaving them as vulnerable or MORE vulnerable than before.
LB says
It’s meaningless. This just means that they will have to speed up the judicial process, not actually spend more resources investigating the rape cases. This could actually mean the opposite: if there’s not enough evidence after the 4 month deadline, the case is dismissed and the accused rapist walks. And after a case has been closed, there will probably be no more legal recourse for appeals to the verdict. In my opinion, this was done most likely because there are SO MANY backlogged rape cases (it’s Pakistan after all) that something had to be done to help the courts to toss them out more quickly. I hope I’m wrong, but that’s what it looks like to me.
gravenimage says
Pakistan: New law establishes special courts to conclude trials speedily of people charged with rape
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I wouldn’t count on this actually cracking down on rape in Pakistan.
Infidel says
At least not the rape of non-muslim girls kidnapped from schools and then ‘married’, even though the legal marriage age in Pakistan is 16