The Supreme Court of Pakistan has converted the death sentence of a man convicted of raping a 10-year-old girl at a school in Sheikhupura to life imprisonment. Justice Salahuddin Panhwar issued the written verdict.
The court upheld the convict’s Rs 300,000 fine and 6-month additional imprisonment. It also retained the order under the Anti-Rape Act directing payment of Rs 100,000 compensation to the victim child.
The court said protecting female students in educational institutions and on routes is the state’s responsibility. It directed all provincial IGs and the IG Islamabad to increase police patrolling outside schools and take immediate measures for the protection of girls in schools, colleges and universities. Police were ordered to act without delay on complaints of harassment of women and children.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan recommended that federal and provincial governments establish modern medico-legal services on the pattern of the Sindh Medical Legal Act.
According to the verdict, a sweeper at a housing colony school in Sheikhupura assaulted the 10-year-old student. Medical reports confirmed injuries on the child’s body and sexual assault. The court noted that the absence of semen in the forensic lab report does not nullify the case. A 3-day delay in registration of the FIR does not give benefit of doubt in this case.a
The court observed that the school administration tried to conceal the incident and administered a drip to the child inside the school. The silence and delay by the administration cannot be allowed to harm the child and her widowed mother, it said. The convict’s claim of a fight at the school gate and allegation of being falsely implicated were not proven.