The story of the Kashmore rape case has shocked everyone, not least because it involved an assault on a mother-daughter pair. The killing of the main accused by an accomplice has only further added mystery to what really happened in the interior of Sindh, but the reaction of the federal government, which is to bring an ordinance enhancing the punishment, will not provide a sufficient substitute for proper policing. The crime is governed by the Hudood Ordinance as well as the Pakistan Penal Code, and providing for enhanced punishments or special courts will merely be eyewash, and will not serve as a preventive.
The kneejerk reaction of enhanced punishments will be meaningless without better policing and prosecution. If no one is convicted, the punishments cannot be administered, leaving policemen to cover their sloppiness by faking encounters, as appears to have been done in Kashmore, thereby getting public pressure off their backs for time being, until the next outrage. The problem is not limited to a failure to get victims to testify, for fear of what amounts to insulting and hostile cross-examination by defence lawyers. It is made worse because of the impunity felt by criminals, who believe that their crime will go unpunished, because they will not be convicted. Because of this, rape is used as a tool of coldblooded enmity, and not just a slaking of base desires.
The series of violent sexual crime indicates a deeper malaise than can be handled by enhancing punishments, but which requires better policing. If the CCPO Lahore, who is so much the blue-eyed boy of the government that the previous IGP was transferred, and who used the Motorway rape case in indulge in victim-blaming repeatedly, will continue to command, the government cannot hope to prosecute such crimes successfully. If no one is convicted, after all, how are those sentences to be awarded? A more proactive attitude would be to ensure that prosecutions in hand are so handled that prosecutions succeed. While assaults will not cease, the criminal should no longer be under the impression that he will get away with this heinous crime.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/11/15/reaction-to-rape/
Reaction to rape: Editorial in Pakistan Today, , Nov 16th, 2020
The story of the Kashmore rape case has shocked everyone, not least because it involved an assault on a mother-daughter pair. The killing of the main accused by an accomplice has only further added mystery to what really happened in the interior of Sindh, but the reaction of the federal government, which is to bring an ordinance enhancing the punishment, will not provide a sufficient substitute for proper policing. The crime is governed by the Hudood Ordinance as well as the Pakistan Penal Code, and providing for enhanced punishments or special courts will merely be eyewash, and will not serve as a preventive.
The kneejerk reaction of enhanced punishments will be meaningless without better policing and prosecution. If no one is convicted, the punishments cannot be administered, leaving policemen to cover their sloppiness by faking encounters, as appears to have been done in Kashmore, thereby getting public pressure off their backs for time being, until the next outrage. The problem is not limited to a failure to get victims to testify, for fear of what amounts to insulting and hostile cross-examination by defence lawyers. It is made worse because of the impunity felt by criminals, who believe that their crime will go unpunished, because they will not be convicted. Because of this, rape is used as a tool of coldblooded enmity, and not just a slaking of base desires.
The series of violent sexual crime indicates a deeper malaise than can be handled by enhancing punishments, but which requires better policing. If the CCPO Lahore, who is so much the blue-eyed boy of the government that the previous IGP was transferred, and who used the Motorway rape case in indulge in victim-blaming repeatedly, will continue to command, the government cannot hope to prosecute such crimes successfully. If no one is convicted, after all, how are those sentences to be awarded? A more proactive attitude would be to ensure that prosecutions in hand are so handled that prosecutions succeed. While assaults will not cease, the criminal should no longer be under the impression that he will get away with this heinous crime.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/11/15/reaction-to-rape/
Published in Pak Media comment, Pakistan and Uncategorized