Man gets five-year jail term for sexually abusing minor

A special gender-based violence court has sentenced a man to five years in prison for sexually abusing a minor girl in Karachi’s Landhi neighbourhood last year.

Umair Qadeer was found guilty of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl at his grocery within the jurisdiction of the Landhi police station in May 2022. Judge Ilyas A Memon pronounced the judgement he had reserved after recording the evidence and final arguments from both the defence and the prosecution.

He said the prosecution had produced ample ocular account of evidence that supported the allegations against the accused. “The evidence brought on record inspires confidence and there are no material contradictions in the statements of PWs [prosecution witnesses] creating reasonable doubt in the case of the prosecution.”

The judge ruled that the prosecution had proved its case against the accused and convicted him of the offence of sexual abuse punishable under Section 377-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The convict, who had appeared in court on bail, was subsequently taken into custody and remanded to jail to serve out the sentence awarded to him according to the law. The prosecution stated that the accused had engaged the victim in an obscene and sexually explicit conduct, thus committing the offence of sexual abuse.

An FIR had been registered under sections 337-B (punishment for sexual abuse), 294 (obscene acts) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the PPC at the Landhi police station on the complaint of the girl’s father.