<\/p>\n
Lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii says verdict shows the “rot” in the country’s rule of law, lawyer Reema Omer says case has “cast a blow to women\u2019s right to dignity and privacy”.<\/p>\n
Former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi\u2019s conviction and sentencing to seven years of imprisonment in the Iddat case on Saturday generated a strong backlash from lawyers and civil society who denounced the verdict.<\/p>\n
The latest conviction was the fourth for the beleaguered PTI founder. He was sentenced to 14 years in jail in the Toshakhana reference by an accountability court on Wednesday, sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday for leaking state secrets and convicted in a separate Toshakhana case in August last year with a sentence of three years imprisonment.<\/p>\n
Regarding the former premier\u2019s fourth conviction, this is what the experts had to say:<\/p>\n
Lawyer Basil Nabi Malik told Dawn.com<\/em> that when a former prime minister\u2019s marriage resulted in not only a seven-year conviction but also a fine, \u201cone should not only be worried about where we are headed but also about the intellectual bankruptcy of our preoccupations.\u201d<\/p>\n He explained that a marriage contracted during the Iddat period would \u201cat best, appear to be irregular and not void\u201d.<\/p>\n Malik added that such an irregularity as per Sunni law and available case law \u201cextinguishes on the expiry of the Iddat period itself\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe accused have been convicted under Section 496 which makes its applicability circumspect, especially when keeping in mind that such sections require intent and\/or knowledge of \u2018not lawfully being married\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cFurthermore, the sheer coincidence of three back-to-back decisions against Imran Khan etc. right before elections, is, perhaps, one coincidence too many. But again, does anyone really care?\u201d<\/p>\n Lawyer Rida Hosain told Dawn.com<\/em> that the past week\u2019s convictions had \u201ccompletely discredited\u201d the judiciary.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is clear that none of these convictions have anything to do with the law. The fact that the courts have failed to stop, and in fact, become part of the weaponisation of justice is tragic. Last year, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah ruled that \u2018the right to dignity stands at the top, like a jewel in the crown of fundamental rights.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe right to dignity is absolute, and cannot be subjected to any restrictions, no matter how \u2018reasonable\u2019 they may be. Despite the Constitution guaranteeing these basic, fundamental rights, a married couple were forced into the courtroom, and required to defend entirely private decisions they had made. The message that this sends is that: nothing is sacred,\u201d she opined.<\/p>\n Lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii referred to the verdict as a \u201cjoke\u201d, saying that they \u201cserve only to expose the circus that is our judicial system. They bring to the world the rot that is the rule of law in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawyer Reema Omer castigated the verdict as a \u201cdamning blot on our justice system\u201d, saying it was horrifying how \u201cthe state stooped this low seemingly just to humiliate\u201d the husband and wife.<\/p>\n \u201cBy making a woman\u2019s menstrual cycle the subject of criminal inquiry (as well as public debate), this case has cast a blow to women\u2019s right to dignity and privacy, as well as their freedom to make decisions about divorce and marriage without fear of being dragged in court,\u201d she pointed out.<\/p>\n Senior journalist and former Dawn<\/em> editor Abbas Nasir termed the sentence a \u201ctravesty\u201d and \u201cmassive overkill which was wholly unnecessary\u201d.<\/p>\n He said the verdict would only inflame the PTI support base and \u201cmake them vote with a sense of vengeance\u201d.<\/p>\n Civil rights activist and independent candidate for the February 8 general elections Dr Ammar Ali Jan also lent his voice to criticising the verdict.<\/p>\n \u201cWelcome to Pakistan where an iddat case will get you a seven-year sentence while committing genocide and subverting the Constitution will get you free plots,\u201d Dr Jan said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Reuters<\/em> bureau chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan Gibran Peshimam rued that it would only have been news if Imran was not convicted in a case, adding that three guilty verdicts in six days in three different cases had to be \u201csome sort of record\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii says verdict shows the “rot” in the country’s rule of law, lawyer Reema Omer says case has “cast a blow to women\u2019s right to dignity and privacy”. Former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi\u2019s conviction and sentencing to seven years of imprisonment in the Iddat case on Saturday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/02\/0318151505206d5.jpg?r=181642","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}