The Supreme Court has finally announced its verdict on 21st April, earlier reserved on Jan 27, 2010 by upholding the Lahore High Court's verdict in Mukhtaran Mai gang rape case. The honorable court acquitted all the accused except Abdul Khaliq. Mukhtaran Mai was represented by renowned lawyer Aitezaz Ahsan and this must be one of very few cases where he lost The case was registered about 9 years ago in June, 2002 and was given a world wide publicity through the courtesy of our ever vigilant electronic media and Human Rights NGOs especially woman rights activists like Farzan Bari and others. The entire nation was fuming with rage and was demanding capital punishment to those who committed gang rape and for those members of the village Punchayat who ordered this criminal act in Meerwala village of south Punjab. However, the drop scene of this very well hyped case was most disappointing for the public in general and Mukhtaran Mai in particular. But during this trial period of 9 years, Mukhtaran Mai collected enough funds through the efforts of various NGOs who perhaps also made lot of money in the name of victimisation of women in Pakistan by the feudal lords who do not get justice in this third world country. After this verdict of the Supreme Court, some private TV channels had discussion on this case and bringing Mukhtaran Mai for her comments on the judgement. One of the guests revealed that some NGOs, in order to procure funds from international agencies and justify their existence, make Mukhtaran Mai like cases in the remote areas of the country. Mukhtaran Mai was made an international figure and she toured many countries of the world including USA along with her secretary and an interpreter as she could not speak English and gave interviews to their media. This guest further revealed that Farzan Bari who belonged to a middle class family, now owns a house in Islamabad worth over Rs 100 millions. She is running an NGO and is a human rights activist. She has also condemned the Supreme Court verdict on the TV. But the guest on the TV was adamant on the point that this case was totally a cooked up case and no such thing happened in Meerwala village. I think there is a need to constitute a commission to find out the facts of the case and if it was all a drama to procure funds from the international agencies, then people involved should be given exemplary punishment and all such NGOs who get financial support from abroad should be banned. The public must be told the truth about this much hyped case where the rapists and the Punchayat members got acquitted after 9 years trial in various courts. MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJA, Lahore, April 22.