Three men have been acquitted for gang raping of a girl, abducted from the premises of Quaid’s mausoleum, in 2008 by an Additional Sessions Judge in Karachi. The judge rejected the universally accepted DNA evidence, which even our Supreme Court has declared admissible. No greater disservice could have been done to Islam by our lower judiciary than to distort the Hadood Ordinance for giving relief to rapists.
I fail to understand requirement of four witnesses for crime of rape, where DNA match and medico legal examination both confirm that the heinous crime of rape was committed. The Honorable Chief Justice of Supreme Court must immediately take note of this gross miscarriage of justice by lower judiciary. This reminds me of the explanation and logic for four witnesses to be required for sentencing a Muslim adult for consensual sex given by an educated and well respected scholar Abu Bakr Ghaznavi who taught us Islamic Studies at West Pakistan University of Engineering and Technology in 1968. According to Abu Bakr Ghaznavi, when adults indulge in immoral behavior publicly posing a danger to society, in presence of at least four witnesses, than Almighty gives right to society to punish such adults.
To reject conclusive DNA evidence to substantiate crime of rape, even after the rapist has recognized one of the criminals and medical examination substantiates that the crime has been committed, is to make a mockery of Islamic Laws because such nonsensical interpretations only help enemies of Islam to conclude that this is a religion which has not adapted to the 21st century and still remains in the 14th century, although Islam is for all times to come and it is a religion which advocates acquiring knowledge of science and technology by members of this faith.
After all DNA is scientific technology which acknowledges that which the Almighty has created. It is time our Judiciary started utilizing advisory services of qualified specialists, whenever a situation demands and especially when these scientific facts have been universally accepted. If DNA can be used to convict criminals accused of planning assassination of ruling elite, why not to provide justice to victims of rape?
MALIK TARIQ ALI,
Lahore, April 21.