Muhammad Nadeem Bhatti
Pakistan is a developing Islamic country. Over the past few years, it has been facing some serious social issues internally. The gang-rape case is one of them. We have seen many cases of harassment and murder after rape throughout the country.
The situation is very alarming as these cases get so much international coverage. The reputation of Pakistan is getting worse globally due to this issue. A country, already been infamous due to corruption, money laundering, terrorism, and heavy amounted projects which have been fully failed by democratic Governments which are purely accountable, will not get any attraction to investors and tourists if proper measures not be taken against such elements which are the garbage & fistula of our society. Although, it is a total loss for a common man that insufficient progress of these public representatives towards the society.
On Thursday, 9th September 2020, a woman was gang-raped while traveling from Lahore to Gujranwala. She was traveling with her 2 young children. The incident took place on Lahore to Gujranwala motorway. The car of the woman got out of fuel at around 1 am at midnight and she stopped her car on the way. Her relative told her to call the motorway police to help. But the police did not arrive on the spot to help the needy women. 2 men came close to the car pretending to be the helpers. They broke the windows of the car and dragged women and the children out of the car brutally.
They cut the metal fence and dragged her down by the road and raped her in front of her children. They also tortured the women badly. After the rape, they robbed the jewelry and cash worth (1 lakh rupees) and then escaped into the nearby village. The country seethed with anger on Thursday morning as details emerged on media. The childish statement of a senior (city police chiefs) added fuel to
the fire with his indifferent and unhelpful remarks. Later, in a video that gone viral, he explained that he did not give the statement intentionally and he did not criticize the victim. But he wanted to tell the other people to take care of their ladies (Wife, Daughter, Mother, and Sister) and try to be with them whenever they wanted to travel. The incident raised a huge question mark on our security agencies as well as on us that we have failed badly as a society. Although, we spend a huge budget on police department’s protocol. We do not have basic ethics in us. These incidents are increasing day by day. Before people forget the previous case, another case comes to light. Our laws are not so strict and up to the mark that criminals can get afraid of them. They know they will be released after paying a fine and by serving 9 to 10 months in prison. It is also a question mark on police investigation department and the staff of lower judiciary which are well known to inform the culprits before getting arrested.
In Pakistan Rape is defined in Section 375 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 (the ‘PPC’) as; A man is said to commit ‘rape’ who has sexual intercourse with a woman under circumstances falling under any of the five descriptions; against her will, without her consent, with her consent, when her consent has been obtained by putting her in fear of death, or of hurt, and with or without her consent when she is under sixteen (16) years of age. According to section 376, a three-year sentence and/or fine will be imposed on a public servant who fails to properly carry out an investigation. Police officers and public servants who take advantage of their position to rape women in their custody will be given mandatory life imprisonment or the death penalty (DP). Under the law, sentences for rape are the death penalty or a sentence of between ten and twenty-five years. For gang rape, these are the death penalty or life imprisonment. The thing to be noted here is that laws against all such disgusting activities are there but who is responsible to apply them? To whom we should ask when these criminals get out of prison after serving only for less than 2 years? Let’s take a close examination of countries that have serious punishments against rape cases. In the US, the punishment for rape when found guilty is life imprisonment. In Iran & Egypt, punishment is death by hanging. In China, the punishment is death. In North Korea, the punishment is death by firing on head. Saudi Arabia does beheading when the culprit is found guilty. In India, according to the anti-rape bill of April 2013, the punishment is life imprisonment (14 Years) or the death sentence.
According to my analysis, Pakistan has all the necessary laws against any criminal & unethical activity but the need of the hour is to implement these laws properly so that these criminal addicted people could get their lesson and nobody will try to commit this inhuman act afterward. The punishment should be given without any guarantee of bail and that will be really suffering for these elements. The judicial system of Pakistan is not so efficient that these criminals can get the punishment what they really deserve. The investigation officer (IO) in the police department is very easy to be approached by the criminal’s family members. They give him a hefty amount as a bribe so he can extend the case as much as possible. In the meantime, a new case comes to the light in media and the officer investigating that previous case develops a soft corner for the criminal. The case becomes bail able and the culprit comes out of the prison within a year. The same thing happened with the criminals who have performed the Gujranwala case with the French-Pakistani women. The investigation and operation department are two separate wings in Punjab police. But they help for interfere in each other’s matter to secure the criminals. For the sake of better results, the police department establishment has separated operation, security and investigation departments but investigation department is so sluggish and incompetent sub inspectors are appointed there that cannot perform the crystal clear investigation. So, society and its inhabitants always suffer a lot by this sluggish movement. In lot of cases, government concern democratic persons do the favors of their belonging one. So, the existing situation keeps happening in the society. In these circumstances, always affect the working capacity of a person to be the vital role of growing country.
—The writer is an entrepreneur & senior economic analyst.
