LAHORE: Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted the appeal of a 22-year-old girl who was stabbed 23 times by a former friend in 2016 and overturned a lower court's acquittal of her attacker in a landmark case that has shone the light on how difficult it is to prosecute crimes against women in Pakistan.
Khadija Siddiqui and Shah Hussain studied together at a law college in Lahore and the assault allegedly occurred after Siddiqui ended her friendship with Hussain. Siddiqui said Hussain subsequently attacked her in broad daylight on May 16, 2016 when she had gone to pick her younger sister up after school.
“My case has a lesson for the women: never give up. Continue struggle till the end," Siddiqui told Arab News after the verdict. "My character was assassinated. Threats were hurled on me ... but I continued my struggle."
In July 2017, a judicial magistrate gave Hussain seven years in jail, a sentence that was reduced to five years by a sessions court. A year later, Hussain was set free by the Lahore High Court in a decision that shocked the nation.
Siddiqui then appealed the verdict before the Supreme Court and on Wednesday, the high court's order was declared null and void and Hussain was arrested from the court premises. he will serve five years in jail.
Hussain's lawyer, Dr. Khalid Ranjha, said there was insufficient evidence against his client but they accepted the apex court's decision.
"We, however, have the right of review petition that we will exercise after consultation,” he told Arab News.
The Lahore High Court's decision last year to acquit Siddiqui's attacker caused a huge backlash, particularly on social media where a movement led by her lawyer Hassan Niazi gathered momentum and led to former Chief Justice Mian Saquib Nisar reopening the case.
Siddiqui is currently studying law in the United Kingdom and had traveled to Pakistan to attend the proceedings. Barrister Niaz told Arab News that the verdict was a testament to the fact that one should never lose hope of receiving justice from the courts.
Siddiqui's long fight for justice has spotlighted the difficulty of prosecuting crimes against women in Pakistan. A 2018 poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation put Pakistan at number six on a list of the world's most dangerous countries for women. The country, home to roughly 208 million people, sees thousands of cases of violence against women every year.