saiyan0321
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Agnostic Aik chez batao
This is the problem here. The work of Social Media and other news outlets cannot be understated in bringing serious issues to light but the problem is the limitation in place which is that only those cases get some semblance of proper treatment that get media limelight. Now why is that? because the police is pressured to invesitgate, you have bureaucracy running around, you have CM/PM calling and you have political statements and activists are standing and protests and what not and all this is fine but it is only fine in respect to the limitation of the case in highlight.
What about the other thousands of cases? I know this and i see this everyday. So many cases where the police neither investigates in a correct fashion nor protects the victim. The CCPO statement may piss off half the world but are all of them aware that his statement is a mere product of the culture that is in the police. Police blames the victim.
"My brother was murdered by our enemies." They respond with an eye roll, "Acha, this is old family feud." Bring this scenario to every penal case. Let me say on Public Hangings as well while we are at the topic. They will not help at all. I support the Deterrent theory in Punishment. I support that legal concept however the problem is not make a scene of the punishment, which we cant not just because the SC itself has declared it as such but also UN as well. We cant do that. This is again avoiding the real issue. Why? because those sitting in the parliament and in Parliamentary affairs know that it is far easier to talk about public hangings and passing resolutions than to actually do anything that will empower the legal system since this requires actual effort and most such an important legal framework will be met with opposition.
Let me give you an Example. DNA evidence. In Pakistan DNA evidence is considered as secondary evidence since it has corroborative nature. A decade ago or two ago, it didnt even have this value. When the forensic world was being revolutionized with DNA evidence, we were busy making Rape investigations even harder.
In criminal law, the DNA evidence or forensic evidence are considered as expert opinion. The evidence thus cannot be used as primary evidence such Oral evidence. So basically we have a witness that will state "Rape happened" and then point to the DNA report and state that i am being corroborated with such. The Problem comes when it states that in absence of Primary evidence, case cannot be decided based on secondary evidence. You see courts stretch in Rape cases but alot of time, people get acquitted based on such legal loophole. The court has went the extra mile in this like inIn Salman Akram Raja v Government of Punjab, the Supreme Court of Pakistan made an attempt to remedy the lack of a specialized legal framework for utilization of DNA evidence. The Court directed that DNA tests be conducted in all sexual offences, and that DNA samples be preserved as well. This case was public interest litigation initiated by the Court suo moto in response to an attempted suicide by a minor victim of rape on her failure to get her complaint registered against influential offenders. Concerning DNA, the Court observed that it provided
"
a means of identifying perpetrators with [a] high degree of confidence… and by using DNA technology the courts would be in a better position to reach at a conclusion whereby the real culprit would be convicted, potential suspects would be excluded and wrongfully involved accused would be exonerated."
However the courts cannot leave the ambit of prescribed law thus the court was also forced to state that DNA evidence is not infallible and should not be taken as a conclusive proof. It should always be acted upon after corroboration from other pieces of evidence. This caution is appropriate and timely as sometimes people indulge in exaggerating DNA’s accuracy. DNA evidence is ‘largely rooted in probabilities, even a confirmed “match” does not supply concrete proof of guilt’.
Another example of the court leaving stretching the law to empower DNA evidence In Zulfiqar Ali v The State, an unmarried girl was sexually assaulted twice by her own father before marriage, but she was reluctant to report it due to family pressure and the adverse effects it would have on her marriage prospects. However, after being assaulted for the third time, she decided to report it to police by registering a First Information Report (‘FIR’). The version of the victim’s story was fully supported by her mother, who was aware of the abuse. Their statements were found to be convincing and were corroborated by the reports of the chemical examiner and a DNA test. The only adverse factor in the narrative presented by the prosecution was of the delay in the registration of the FIR, which was plausibly explained. In these circumstances, the Court convicted the accused of rape.
In Imran alias Manoo v The State, a woman was kidnapped and raped. An FIR was lodged after an unexplained delay of eight days. The medical examiner found the hymen of the victim to have been torn earlier than the alleged incident. The statement of the victim did not inspire confidence, and was insufficient in establishing the accused’s guilt. In these circumstances, the Lahore High Court maintained the conviction after reducing the imprisonment awarded by the trial court on the basis of the evidence of a doctor who examined the victim and a positive DNA report.
In both these cases, DNA evidence was utilized as corroboratory evidence but was given greater importance to convict the accused and this was stretching the law because the law clearly states that secondary evidence cannot be utilized in a manner which can detail the conviction. It cannot be the center.
Another example and i will continue to procedural aspects. In Shakeel Nawaz v The State, the Court refused to rely on a DNA report and acquitted the accused because the test was not conducted by a laboratory notified by the government. In government labs you have huge waiting time, absolute breakdown of system and non-cooperative staff. It was this action that prompted the Women protection bill of 2016 that amended the process quite a bit to make DNA tests easier and that amendment went through hell to be passed. You had clerics and interest driven groups demanding that such an amendment will ruin the system but it did not. It made things easier, it made it easier to get evidence because it is the job of the prosecution to get that evidence into court, to get that expert opinion and expert into court. Half dont even answer when you call them! In many cases, you have too much time passed and the evidence becomes flimsy.
Now another problem is that the nature of secondary evidence allows for court to not punish the DNA agency for non-conducting or demand the prosecution to conduct it right but treat it as 'Further investigation and Further evidence' and you have Bails that are filed on this. The forensic evidence portion of our evidence law requires extreme amendments but here is the thing. If we attach DNA analysis and Finger Prints and other evidence as primary and absolute in all cases then it will be opposed just like DNA is opposed by clerics, conservatives and many interest driven groups. They have repeatedly fought against making DNA evidence a primary evidence in rape law or have fought against keeping of register of offenders and DNA samples since they fight against any such legislation. A very valuable scientific evidence is being ignore simply because you dont have the legal framework. So rather than wasting time with public hangings pass two major amendments.
1. Make rape a death offence. You just have to amend the penal code.
2. Add DNA as primary evidence and then amend the Rape legal procedure where the burden of bringing evidence is lifted from Prosecution and is given to the court so that we can grab those experts and the police officers by the ear and bring them to court.
This would go a long way in preventing Rape accused from circumventing the system and would allow for justice to be given to those thousands of souls who do not get the media highlight
@waz there is nothing more horrifyingly deserted than Motorway at night and ring road is also pretty deserted. Thieves and bandits use it as a perfect means for banditry and recently i am seeing an uptick in trend where the there is theft or dacoity and they rape any woman they find and i dont know what the hell is going on with his but apart from legal changes, we also need societal changes. Police being professional would go a long way to be honest
