Chief Justice takes suo moto notice of ‘revenge rape’ in Multan

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar has taken suo moto notice of ‘revenge rape’ of a teenage girl on the order of Panchayat (Village council) in Multan.

Taking notice, the Chief Justice directed Inspector General of Police Punjab to submit a detailed report of the incident.

The village council, had ordered the rape of a teenage girl as punishment for a rape committed by her brother. The incident occurred earlier this month in the neighbourhood of Raja Ram in Muzaffarabad, a suburb of the central city of Multan.

"A jirga (village council) had ordered the rape of a 16-year-old girl as punishment, as her brother had raped a 12-year-old," said Allah Baksh, a local police official.

He said the village council was approached by a man who complained that his 12-year-old sister had been raped by their cousin.

The council then ordered the complainant to rape the sister of the accused in return, Baksh said -- an order which was duly carried out.

The allegations were confirmed by Rashid Taheem, the police officer heading the investigation.

"Both the parties had filed cases of rape against each other at the local police station after the incident that happened last week," he told AFP.

City Police Officer (CPO) Ahsan Younis has submitted a report of an incident to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in which it was revealed that a girl was allegedly raped in revenge on the order of Panchayat.

He said that Muzaffarabad police had arrested 20 Panchayat members while the police were conducting raids at Jalalpur Pirwala to arrest accused Umar.