Pakistan rape victim moves Supreme Court

Islamabad

The woman from Khanpur Bagga Sher village of Muzaffargarh district in Punjab province who also claims to have been gang-raped said in her petition that she was revealing the ordeal to save other women from being blackmailed, a media report said today.

She invoked the jurisdiction of the apex court through her counsel Zulfikar Ahmad Bhutta under enforcement of fundamental rights.

Advocate Bhutta told 'Dawn' that he had moved the petition because it had become necessary to highlight such crimes being committed with impunity under the nose of law-enforcement agencies.

The petition requested the Supreme Court to direct the Punjab chief secretary and the inspector general of police to submit complete record of cases or FIRs in which a number of girls had been victimised through discreet snapping of indecent pictures or videos to blackmail them for sexual favours.

The petitioner already had registered an FIR in the Model City police station, Muzaffargarh, on March 26, the report said.

According to the FIR, the woman joined a private security company near Faisal Stadium in Muzaffargarh in July last year.

A few weeks after taking up the job, she was raped by her 'master' and subjected to indecent exposure before camera.

The employer, later, started blackmailing her by threatening that if she failed to extend favours or ever informed anybody about the incident, he would upload the pictures on internet.

The FIR also stated that on the next day of the incident, the employer took her to another house where he, along with a drunk policeman, sexually assaulted her.

The police personnel warned her that if she failed to comply with their directions, her parents would be involved in heinous crimes.

The victim was subjected to rape for eight months during which she and her family were threatened by the local police that they would be implicated in fake and forged cases.

They even threatened to kill her on March 26 and got her signatures on a blank nikah form so that she could be exploited in future also, it said.