SC adjourns Mukhtar Mai rape case until March 27

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of a review petition challenging the acquittal of 13 suspects in the Mukhtar Mai gang rape case, reported ARY News.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed put off the hearing till March 27 on a request by a suspect named in the case.

At the start of the hearing, suspect Rasool Buksh stated before the bench that he got a court notice in connection with the hearing yesterday and demanded that he be granted some time to hire the services of a lawyer to plead his case.

Granting his request, the court directed him to appear on the next hearing along with his counsel.

In 2002, a jirga [village council] ordered Mai to be gang-raped after her brother was accused of having extra-marital affair with a woman of a rival clan.

An anti-terrorism court had in Aug 2002 sentenced six men to death. Four of the convicts were awarded capital punishment for raping Mai and two for being part of the jirga.

Later, the Lahore High Court Multan bench acquitted five of the convicts and converted the death sentence of accused Abdul Khaliq to life imprisonment.

Afterwards, Mai went to the apex court, challenging the acquittal of the accused. A three-judge bench of the apex court had in April 2011 rejected her appeal by a majority of two to one. Justice Nasirul Mulk had written a dissenting note, diverging from the majority opinion of Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Mian Saqib Nisar.