LAHORE: Fatima Bukhari, author of ‘Accountability for rape: A case study’, said at an online discussion on Tuesday that as per Punjab Prosecution Department data on rape cases in 2016 and 2017, 5,852 incidents were reported, and of them, only 200 convictions took place. Most of the acquittals were in south Punjab.

The discussion was arranged by a law school where Sara Malkani, Sameer Khosa, Mehlab Jameel and Sahar Bandial also spoke.

Bokhari said that in spite of there being some solid laws in 2016, not all processes were being followed, including lack of medicolegal examinations. Another key gap was that not everyone in the criminal justice system was even aware of what the law said.

She said in 57% of the studied cases, the ML information was not present on file which means it never took place, while 70% of the cases showed that the ML investigation had taken place after 72 hours.

“Unless there are no serious training and implementation designs, the same thing will happen in these new laws too,” she said.

“A big reason for the delay in medicolegal exams was that there was an absence of a female MLO. Also in rural areas, the rape survivor would have to delay his or her statement waiting for a female police officer. There are also jurisdiction issues which require travelling.”

Ms Malkani questioned why ordinances need to be passed instead of laws as this would only make implementation more difficult. She said that while, one of the new ordinances was focused on trial and investigation of rape, would it not be better to have on the courts present be gender sensitized instead of setting up new ones.

The laws in discussion were two new ordinances, and one LHC verdict on the two finger test. The LHC verdict in January was integral, and two ordinances in November were passed after the government made some changes.

Ms Bandial and Mr Khosa gave an overview of the judgment highlighting the important points.

“An important development that took place in the verdict was that Justice Ayesha Malik in her judgment clearly said the finger test violated dignity, and right to life,” said Bandial.

Mr Khosa said there are other points in the judgment such as the concept of virginity testing, and hymen tests, which determine the presence of a hymen to ‘see’ whether the person is a virgin or not.

Mehlab Jameel spoke about the definition of rape being made gender neutral.

“The definition of rape till 2021 was very restrictive, and did not include anyone else other than women, as survivors of the crime,” she said. “Most of the time when transgenders are raped, section 377 is used which is only unnatural offenses. Here it is the language of the law that matters. Unlike section 375, section 377 does not make any distinction on the basis of consent, but the vague language makes it difficult for justice to be provided to rape victims.”

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2021