Daily Times

A Khairpur teacher who routinely raped and assaulted his students was acquitted by a sessions court earlier this week despite documented evidence of the abuse. The court claims that there was insufficient evidence to keep him in jail even though there are numerous graphic videos of him raping his students circulating across the internet-it doesn’t get more concrete than that. But the court maintains that there’s nothing they can do, especially since the parents of the victims have pardoned him on their children’s behalf.

Once again, an out-of-court settlement threatens to undo the balance of our criminal justice system, which, to be honest, has never been too kind to victims of sexual abuse. If we dig a little deeper, we find that Sarang Shar belongs to one of the most influential families in his community whereas his victims are largely from poor backgrounds-did it not occur to the court that Shar, like many other perpetrators of his kind, is deliberately exploiting his influence to coerce his victims into a settlement so he can walk away scot-free? Is it not the court’s responsibility to speak for victims when they have been robbed of the opportunity to do so themselves? These are all important questions but it’s becoming exceedingly clear that Pakistani courts don’t have the capacity to answer them.

Even if there was no direct pressure, the legal system isn’t easy to navigate for those who don’t have the resources to manoeuvre it to their will. That combined with the pressure of a protracted criminal trial and the stigma that invariably follows is enough to keep victims out of court. Pakistan has one of the highest rates of child sexual abuse in the world, with over half a million children raped each year. But conviction rates remain abysmally low-the fear of bringing shame to one’s family is so severe that people pretend it doesn’t exist at all. Indeed, if we weren’t so intent on keeping the peace, Sarang Shar, a man who raped 132 children and documented it all on his camera, would still be in prison. *