Only 3.3 pc rape accused convicted in Pak in 20 months

Only 3.3 per cent rape accused in Pakistan have been convicted in the last 20 months, reflecting ill-defined and vague colonial era laws and taboos associated with reporting such cases.
Between June 2013 and February 2015, about 4,960 cases of rape were registered all over the country, and only 219 people of a total of 6,632 booked in these cases have been convicted, according to official figures.
Punjab, which is the most populated province (90 million), has topped the list with 4,322 rape cases.
Due to taboos associated with the reporting of rape cases, a large number of them are never brought to the notice of the police.

"The actual number of rape cases is much higher as most victims do not report the crime to the police believing that their lives will become more miserable if they do so," says advocate Atif Sultan who is associated with an NGO Sahil.
He said the country's criminal justice system discourages rape victims and benefits perpetrators only.

"A rape case could take seven to 10 years to decide and ultimately it ends up with acquittal of the accused. If a victim is bold enough to fight the case to its logical end, she has to do it on her own as the civil society leaves her very soon and the media gets other cases to report instead of following up her case," he said.

Advocate Sultan further said that a rape victim had to endure hardships in all forms and from everyone starting from a policeman to a judge of a lower court.
"Ill-defined and vague colonial era laws, reminiscent of medieval honour for women, such as outraging women's modesty should be struck out and other laws relevant to how women experience violence - including shaming and blackmailing through social media - should be enacted," he said.
Recently the Senate's Standing Committee on Law and Justice has approved the Anti-Rape Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill of 2014.
It is pending before the National Assembly to seek amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code (1860), Code of Criminal Procedure (1898) and the Qanoon-i-Shahadat (1984) to improve upon rape prosecution.

PPP Senator Sughra Imam has moved some amendments in the proposed Bill that include resolution of rape cases within six months, protection of the identity of rape victims, penalties for disclosures of personal information of rape victims, mandatory medical test and extraction of DNA within 24 hours of receipt of information of such an offence.