PESHAWAR: A local teenage dancer, who has accused an Afghan parliamentarian of raping her, has agreed to settle the matter with the suspect out of court, insist family sources.

On Thursday, the police had registered a rape case against Sher Ali Ahmedzai, a member of the Afghan Wolesi Jirga or parliament’s lower house, after the victim alleged he had raped her when she was at his house in Hayatabad for a dance performance.

A family member of the rape victim told Dawn that both parties had agreed to the out-of-court settlement.

She, however, said the rape case had yet to be withdrawn.

“We don’t want to discuss the settlement details with the media,” she said.

The suspect is charged under sections 376 and 354 of the Pakistan Penal Code and sections 10 and 11 of the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudud) Ordinance, 1979.

He is at large. The police raided his house but he was not there.

Legal experts say the legal sections under which the suspect is charged are not compoundable (nonnegotiable) as sexual offence is an offence against the state and not against an individual.

They say if the alleged rape victim enters into compromise with the suspect, she will have to retract from her initial statement that she was sexually assaulted by him.

When contacted, Hayatabad ASP Hassan Afzal expressed ignorance about the development.

He said the FIR was intact as no formal compromise had taken place in the case so far.

Meanwhile, the police said the 18-year-old dancer had gone to Afghan MP’s Hayatabad house for a dance party, where Sher Ali allegedly took her to a room and raped her.

They said they had seized the suspect’s passport, ‘Pakistani ID card’ and the Wolesi Jirga’s membership card.

The police said they had also arrested the suspect’s guard Juma Khan and cook Fazal Rehmat on the charge of possessing illegal arms.

They said one of the arrested men was also charged under the Foreigners Act as he was an Afghan national but didn’t have valid travel documents.

The police said the two were produced before the court of judicial magistrate Asif Jadoon, who sent them to prison on judicial remand.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2016