TRUTH UNVEILED
C.J. (Chief Justice) of the SCP (Supreme Court of Pakistan), Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary, during suo moto hearing of a case, observed:

"The Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979 is getting criticism and objections only because of handling of hudood cases by police in such a manner."

Thank God! He is not one of those West-poodles!

The Daily DAWN
Issue of October 13, 2006

Rape victim booked for adultery: SC orders inquiry
ISLAMABAD, Oct 12: The Supreme Court on Thursday took serious notice of a case in which a woman was raped but she was booked by police for zina bil raza (adultery).
A bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary and Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi ordered a judicial inquiry into the matter.
Complainant Nasreen Mai was kept in illegal confinement for 11 months by Iqbal, a relative of her father and her father's landlord Ali Muhammad Saamtia. During this period, she was raped by Iqbal as a result of which she became pregnant and gave birth to a child. The two culprits stole her one-month-old child and murdered.
"The Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979 is getting criticism and objections only because of handling of hudood cases by police in such a manner," the chief justice observed during suo motu hearing of the complaint of Nasreen Mai.
During the hearing, the court was told that 46 rape cases registered under the hudood laws in District Layyah were awaiting investigation for months for want of a senior police officer.
DPO Layyah Nazim Shahid informed the bench that under the law, hudood cases, especially rape matters, could not be investigated by a police officer less than the rank of an SP. He stated a request was sent to the inspector-general Punjab police on July 6, 2006, for appointment of a senior police officer in the district but so far no step had been taken.
"Therefore, Iqbal is still a free man," the DPO said, adding that being a junior officer, he could not take up the inquiry.
Additional Advocate-General Punjab Syed Azhar Hussain informed the court that Nasreen Mai was married to one Allah Dita but for seven years she remained issueless. After some domestic dispute, she was asked by her father to leave her husband and stay with him.
But Iqbal and Din Mohammad Saamtia, the AAG said, took her away and kept her in illegal detention for eleven months during which she was raped by Iqbal. When she became pregnant and subsequently gave birth to a child, the family members of the landlord killed the baby, the AAG added.
When asked why was an adultery case registered against Nasreen, the DPO explained that the police registered the case on the basis of the finding of the District and Sessions judge Layyah.
However, the bench noted that the DJ Layyah, while compiling his report, had relied upon the investigation of police instead of conducting an independent judicial inquiry.
The bench remanded the case back to the DJ Layyah with instructions to conduct fresh inquiry and ordered police to register a new case on the basis of new findings of the DJ Layyah.
[The Daily DAWN, Vol.LX, No.281, Friday, October 13, 2006, p.3]

ANALYSIS
The following things are revealed by the above news item:-
(1) Police & judges are responsible for converting rape cases into adultery, not the Hudood laws.
(2) Since, this is not a defect in law, but, in the law-enforcing agencies, consequently, the law-enforcing agencies need to be corrected and not the hudood laws.
(3) President Musharraf's Law Reforms Order, 2006 further proves the above two points, because, it added Section 156-B to the CrPC. According to that section, no person shall be arrested for zina [not zina-bil-jabr] by the police, except on order of an authorized Magistrate of a court of competent jurisdiction. Since, this section brought no relief, it can be safely concluded that changing laws will do nothing; police needs to be reformed and made free of corruption.
(4) Section 156-B added to the CrPC by the Law Reforms Order, 2006 requires that no police officer below rank of SP (superintendent) shall investigate zina [not zina-bil-jabr] cases. This has proved to be a nuisance as investigation of zina cases has further slowed down.

Conclusion: The only solution to these problems is to reform the police system!

Hope to hear some comments from the readers...

Regards,
Abdul Rehman.