If anyone wants to understand the plain meanings of the Urdu maxim “Qanoon Andha Hota Hai”, s/he should read the judgment given by Lahore High Court in the case of Khadija Siddiqui. In the detailed order of the High Court authored by Judge Sardar Ahmed Naeem, the bias towards the victim is visible. The crystal clear bias against Khadija in the order sheet in itself shows how fragile our legal system is.

The order sheet is anything but an honest attempt at establishing justice. While the honourable judge tries to dismiss the decision of the trial court on technicalities and finding loopholes in our criminal justice system, he remains blindfolded to the scars of strikes made with a knife that the victim is carrying till this day. If liberty of criticism is granted, then this editorial is compelled to say that the order in hand is one of the most shameful attempts to deny justice.

Looking at the ambiguities in the account of the victim that the order sheet mentions, one is forced to think if contradictions are enough an excuse not to punish someone who had displayed his bestiality in public gaze. Variances the order sheet mentions and which make the foundation of the logic the honourable judge put forward to acquit the offender are common in our justice system. Most of the times the courts fail to deliver justice because of the loopholes that our criminal justice system contains.

It is correct to say that the so-called inconsistencies in the statements and papers presented by the petitioner are in fact the loopholes through which the offender has been saved from the punishment that he deserves. What is heartbreaking and enough for anyone not to believe in the competency of our criminal justice system is the fact that the esteemed judge is more concerned with the number of strikes that the offender had made. The august judge is more concerned with a letter in which Khadija accepted to marry Shah Hussain rather than with the scars on the neck of Khadija.

The question that comes to one’s mind is when an ordinary person knows how difficult it is to call the witnesses before the court how can Mr Sardar ignore this fact. Why should the case go in favour of Hussain Shah if the weapon was produced five months after an FIR was registered? While reading the judgment, many questions come to one’s mind and cloud it not to believe in the criminal justice system.