The Lahore High Court’s dismissal of the appeals in the 2020 Motorway gang-rape case brings legal closure one step closer in a case that shook Pakistan’s conscience. The two convicts, sentenced by an anti-terrorism court in 2021, have failed to overturn their sentences. This is welcome, necessary, but sadly, still not enough.
After every high-profile conviction, the state is tempted to congratulate itself and ask the country to believe justice has been done. That is the wrong lesson. A verdict can punish two men. It cannot redeem a system that still makes women fight society before their assailants in court.
The Motorway case became a national wound because it exposed the moral reflexes of authority. Before the survivor could be treated as a citizen wronged by a failing state, she was made to stand trial on television screens. The then Lahore Capital City Police Officer, Muhammad Umar Sheikh, deepened the outrage by publicly questioning her choices. Pakistan saw official instinct move from protection to interrogation.
The Anti-Rape Act, 2021, was meant to break this pattern. It recognised weak evidence collection, delayed trials, stigma and hostile courtroom culture. It created Anti-Rape Crisis Cells, privacy protections and in-camera proceedings, and helped end the barbaric two-finger test. But law is only the opening sentence of reform, especially when UNFPA Pakistan says 28 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence, six per cent sexual violence, and 56 per cent of women who suffered physical or sexual violence neither sought help nor told anyone. In Punjab alone, 6,624 rape cases were reported in 2023, alongside 10,201 cases of violence against women.
Seeing the Supreme Court set aside a rape conviction this January (changing it to fornication (consensual sex out of marriage) and reducing a 20-year sentence to five years and slashing the fine from 500,000 rupees to 10,000 rupees) sparked fresh calls for better protections for Pakistani women. According to figures placed before the Senate, 70 per cent of gender-based violence incidents go unreported, while the national conviction rate hovers around five per cent, with some categories falling to 0.5 per cent.
This is why the much-talked-about death penalty debate cannot substitute for reform. A state that cannot investigate professionally and protect the survivors cannot hide behind severe punishment.
The LHC decision should thus prompt the authorities to audit the Anti-Rape Act honestly and publish conviction data.
Women do not deserve safety because they are mothers, daughters, wives or sisters. They deserve safety because they are persons under the Constitution. *