In a tragic decision that has become much too typical of Pakistani courts, the Peshawar High Court revoked a life sentence handed to a man who sexually assaulted a four-year old boy in Kohat; his sentence was reduced to seven years in prison after an appeal. Arshadullah, the perpetrator, was charged under Section 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 53 of the Child Protection Welfare Act however the court did not sentence him under Section 53. Clearly, this is where the trouble began. The trial court could have easily found the appellant guilty of sexual abuse, a far more nefarious crime that would not have left any room for leniency. However, an incompetent prosecution and the inability to investigate the crime properly gave the perpetrator exactly what he needed to file the appeal. The appellant’s lawyer claimed that the victim’s father, who had filed the FIR that got him convicted, had no objections to an acquittal if it was authorized by the court. This is where the crux of the issue lies: the state alone is responsible for adjudicating crimes of this nature and must pursue them authoritatively as opposed to being unduly influenced by external circumstances. It should be the country’s priority to protect the interests of the child regardless of what the father might have to say. This decision is a classic. Children are autonomous in their own right but are not normally treated as such in Pakistan: they are instead seen as extensions of their parents. Many perpetrators have also been known to intimidate their victims into submission. So, when the victim’s father cracked under the pressure of an angry convict and his sympathizers, he could have been probed further to determine if his concessions were made under duress. It might be worth remembering that most cases of child sexual abuse are not reported, let alone tried in Pakistan so it is disgraceful that a convict was able to get off on a technicality. Ultimately, Arshadullah was able to wriggle out of his life sentence because of a weak criminal justice system that suffers from a lack of moral responsibility to the people that it claims to protect. *