ISLAMABAD, 13 March 2005 — A contempt of court petition was filed in Multan bench of the Lahore High Court yesterday against 14 people including Mukhtaran Mai, a gang-rape victim.
Kunwar Intizar Mohammad Khan, lawyer, on behalf of Ghulam Mustafa Chohan, filed the petition under the Article 204 of the constitution. It was not immediately clear when the court will take up the petition.
It has been said in the petition that no party in the case was satisfied with the decision of the court on March 3 therefore an appeal could have been filed against this decision in the Supreme Court, however no one has the right to protest the court decision.
According to the petition the parties in the case leveled allegations against the court and held protest demonstrations, which is a clear contempt of the court.
Thousands of women held a rally in Multan on March 7, days after a court overturned the death sentences of six men accused of taking part in the June 2002 gang-rape of Mukhtaran, 33, which was ordered by a village council as punishment for her brother’s alleged affair with a woman from another family.
Mukhtaran drew international attention when she came forward to speak about her ordeal. In August 2002, a court sentenced six men to death after finding them guilty.
However, an appeals court early this month overturned the convictions of five men, citing lack of evidence and reduced the sixth man’s sentence to life in prison. The five accused acquitted in the rape case have not been released from the Dera Central Jail as their release orders are yet to be received.
The sixth convict Abdul Khaliq Mastoi, the local jury chief, is still in the death cell and has not been shifted to the cell meant for the convicts, after the court had reduced his death sentence to life.
Meanwhile, the case took a new twist Friday when Pakistan’s highest Islamic court reinstated the convictions of the six men on technical grounds, saying the appeals court had no jurisdiction to hear the case.
