Woman, her ex get three years for acid attack on husband

Karachi

A woman and her ex-husband were sentenced to three years in jail for throwing acid on her spouse.

Additional district and sessions judge West Zahid Hussian Methelo also imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on each convict, Sabira alias Fizza and Talib Tayyab.

The two convicts had thrown acid on the face of Noman Shaikh, Sabira’s husband.

Sabira had left her husband Tayyab and married Shaikh.

After a domestic dispute, she contacted her ex-husband Tayyab and the two planned to attack Shaikh.

In 2012, Tayyab had arrived at Sabira’s home and the two had attacked Shaikh with acid.

Shaikh had registered a case against the two under sections 324/336 of the Pakistan Penal Code. The court, after hearing the case and examining the evidence against the accused, handed down three years’ imprisonment.

Imposing a fine of Rs100,000 on each accused, the court ordered that they would have to serve another term of three months’ imprisonment if they failed to pay.

Acid attacks are made possible by the easy availability of acid as a cheap cleaning fluid, or for use in the cotton industry. Laws introduced last year set a minimum sentence of 14 years and a maximum of life for acid attacks, but owing to the dysfunctional legal system just 10 percent of cases make it to the courts.

Unless and until the issue is taken and considered seriously on the part of the rulers, governments, law department, prosecutors and courts the heinous crime of throwing acid on the faces and bodies of the people, particularly women, cannot be controlled.

Acid throwers are going unchecked due to one reason or the other and a number of such cases are pending with different courts for disposal.

Though the laws dealing with such offences have now been made stricter, there is a dire need for timely disposal of such trials so that the victim families could get justice and the acid throwers the punishment for their crime.

In an incident, four men facing trial for the heinous crime of acid-throwing had managed to slip away from the City Courts premises after a sessions judge rejected their bail applications.