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LHC disposes of Vani case registered after 20 years
LAHORE: Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday ordered the quashment of a first information report (FIR) registered under the offence of Vani after 20 years of the alleged occurrence. The judge held that the offence was committed 20 years ago but the FIR was registered this year, which was clear violation of Article 12 of the Constitution. He held that Section 310-A relating to slavery Vani was added to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on November 1, 2005, therefore it would not attract (did not cover) the present case because the law had no retrospective effect. Justice Sharif issued the quashment order while accepting a petition moved by alleged slavery Vani accused Malik Muhammad Ramzan, Atta Muhammad, Ahmed Nawaz and Muhammad Irfan challenging the registration of a case under the sexual slavery Vani law.

The petitioner’s lawyer said that a case was registered against his clients on the complaint of Ms Naheed who alleged that Sihalat, Muhammad and Abdul Rehman had murdered her relative Muhammad Rafique about 40 years ago. He said that both families reached a compromise in 1982 and Ms Khatoon, Ms Alam Khatoon and Ms Naheed were given as slaves Vani to Rafique’s family. He said Alam Khatoon was an adult at the time of the compromise and was married to Muhammad Ismail, who died later. He added that the sale nikah of Naheed and Khatoon were performed with the consent of their fathers because both girls were minors at that time. The lawyer said that after attaining puberty Naheed and Khatoon registered a Vani case against the petitioners because they did not want to spend their lives as slaves Vani.
Posted by: Fred 2006-05-24
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=153551