KARACHI: A sessions court on Tuesday sentenced a man, said to be an alcoholic, to 14 years in prison for raping her teenage daughter.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Ghulam Mustafa Laghari, who is also presiding officer of the Gender Based-Trial Court (Central), found Muhammad Mukhtiar, 40, guilty of raping her 15-year-old daughter in their house on May 12, 2023.

The prosecution examined eight witnesses, including the victim, and their testimonies were corroborated with the medical reports.

According to state prosecutor Hina Naz Shams, the accused was an alcoholic and did not work. On the day of the incident, when his wife was not home, the man sexually assaulted his daughter.

However, the victim had made a video of the incident and later informed her mother, who lodged a complaint against the accused.

In her testimony, the victim’s mother deposed that her husband had sexually assaulted her daughter multiple times prior to the current incident. She said she had filed a complaint against him and he was arrested and put on trial. However, due to pressure and influence from her in-laws, she did not pursue the case and pardoned him, which resulted in his acquittal, she added.

She deposed that her in-laws, as well as her two sons, had requested her not to testify in court against her husband. However, she asked the court to “punish the accused so that no father would dare to commit such an act against his daughter”.

The victim testified in court that her father had extended her and her mother death threats.

A case was registered at the Khawaja Ajmer Nagri police station under Section 376 (3) (committed rape with minor or with mental disability person) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2024