Historical view of Mai's Case

Mukhtaran Mai :
                          A resident in the southern Punjab village of Meerwala in Pakistan. At the age of 30, in 2002 she was raped by four men. In order to set his 12 year old brother, Shakoor free.

At that time when i heard the story i was pretty shocked and all sympatheis were with her. Eventually they went away as she became a sexually abused trade mark of Pakistan, and Pakistan's repute was at stake.Media played a vital role in propagating it and yes our NGO's were always there.


Now lets see the case which took almost a decade to solve and only one man out of alleged 14, was convicted. 


On 22 June,2002 Shakoor was abducted by three Mastoi men. He was taken to Naseem's house, with whom he supposedly had sex. Naseem's brother Abdul Khaliq rejected to hand him over to his family, instead  handed him over to police. Mai's family tried to settle the dispute by offering some land to Naseem's family, by marring Naseem with Shakoor and Mai with one of their man. Mastoi's wanted revenge on the principle of "eye for an eye", so they accepted the offer and asked Mai herself to come and apologize from Naseem's family. Mai went thier with her Father and uncle, dispute was resolved and settled. suddenly Abdul Khaliq pulled out his revolver and forced Mai to enter a stable near by where she was raped by four men, then paraded in the village naked. Her father covered her up and took her home. No report was filed, but her brother was released as the dispute was setteled.


In regular Friday sermon, Khatib told the whole village to ask for mercy from ALLAH, as a very sinful incident has taken place, luckily a reporter from near by village heard it and published it in press. It was immediatle picked up by international media, and the case is registered against 14 people on 30 June, 2002.


Trial went in prosses and court, on 31 August, 2002 gives the verdict. Sentencing six men to death. Four involved directly in rape, two for being the part of the Panchayat and giving orders, rest of the eight are freed. Mai's response to this verdict "i am satisfied with the verdict".


Mukhtar Mai file separate appeals in the Multan bench of the Lahore high court against the acquittal of the eight men set free on 3 September, 2002. The Multan bench of the Lahore High Court reverses the trial court's judgment on the basis of "insufficient evidence" and "faulty investigations"on 3 March, 2005. The court acquits five of the six while the death sentence of the sixth is turned into life imprisonment. The court orders the release of the five acquitted.

 Ms Mai writes to the government saying she fears for her life if those acquitted are released. Human Rights group hold rallies in various Pakistani cities protesting against the acquittals. Pakistan's highest Islamic court, the Sharia court, suspends the Lahore High Court's acquittal of the five men on 11 March, 2005

The court rules that the Lahore High Court does not have the jurisdiction to hear appeals in cases tried under Islamic laws. The Sharia court decides to hear the case itself.

Now Supreme Court Jumps in to save LHC and decides to hear the final appeal of the case.

 Four of the five acquitted in Ms Mai's case are released by the orders of the Supreme Court on 

15 March, 2005. Ms Mai appeals to President Musharraf to order the re-arrest of the four men released saying she fears for her life 17 March, 2005. The five men released earlier are re-arrested along with the eight others who had been found not guilty at the original trial in 2002, on 18 March, 2005. On the orders of Punjab Government for 90 day detention. Mukhtar Mai files an appeal in the Supreme court against the acquittal of five men sentenced to death by the Supreme court on 26 March, 2005. The Supreme Court says it will start hearing Ms Mai's appeal against acquittals on 27 June and Court suspended the acquittals of the five men convicted. It orders that they and eight others found not guilty at the original trial be held pending retrial. 


Then case continued from year after years and we ended up in 2011 where on 19 April a verdict from SC comes out, four out of five men are freed and Abdul Khaliq is sentenced to 10 yrs.


         "In view of the majority decision, all the noted appeals are hereby dismissed. The suo moto action initiated by this Court vide order dated 14.3.2005 in the matter is also discharged. Therefore, all those who were arrested pursuant to the order of this Court dated 28.6.2005 if not required in any other case be eleased forthwith. Abdul Khaliq, however shall be released after serving his sentence as awarded to him by the earned High Court, the benefit of Section 382 Criminal Procedure Code extended to him by that Court is also maintained."


We fought for this Judicial system and we stood by it, now we are again going to stand against it. I think we should accept the verdict and move on.