EDITORIAL: In refreshingly positive news, the Senate on February 17 passed the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) (Amendment) Bill, which included crucial provisions regarding DNA testing of rape survivors, maintaining their anonymity and ensuring accountability for negligent investigators.
The legislation requires police to ensure DNA tests of rape survivors within 72 hours of the crime, with non-compliance resulting in possible imprisonment and fines for police personnel.
Importantly, it also makes it essential to maintain survivor privacy while preserving DNA results in hospitals or forensic labs, with police stations nationwide required to keep DNA records strictly confidential.
It should be noted that previous iterations of the law had attempted to provide a robust framework for handling rape and sexual assault cases by expanding the definition of rape, prescribing stricter punishments for sexual offences, and mandating the setting up of anti-rape crisis cells to ensure prompt FIR filings, medical exams and forensic analyses.
There were also provisions for appointing support officers to facilitate survivors during legal proceedings, as well as for the setting up of a sex offenders’ register by NADRA.
While there has been definite progress in the legislative environment for prosecuting rape cases, the challenge, as always, lies in the swift and effective implementation of legal provisions.
The sex offenders’ register, for instance, initially envisioned in an ordinance passed by former president Arif Alvi in 2020, was only launched in November 2024.
Similarly, the anti-rape crisis cells, originally mandated in 2021, saw the first of these establishments launched only two years later. Since then, there has been progress, and 89 districts now host these crisis cells, yet much remains to be done to ensure their nationwide presence, proper staffing, and efficient and effective operation to guarantee justice for survivors.
Apart from reforming the administrative aspects of prosecuting rape cases, it is also vital to address the biases and regressive views pertaining to sexual crimes ingrained in society, which also inevitably shape the mindset of those responsible for delivering justice – police officials, medico-legal officers, the media and the judiciary.
The stigmatising treatment meted out to rape survivors by the criminal justice system often leads to further injustice and victimisation. In a minority verdict given by a Supreme Court bench last year in a rape case, where the accused was acquitted, Justice Ayesha Malik had made some pertinent points that must be studied in any analysis of the law of evidence in rape cases. She had pointed out that the silence of the survivor during the commission of the crime doesn’t amount to consent, and that her character and reputation should be immaterial by way of evidence.
Additionally, marks of violence on the survivor’s body and evidence of physical resistance aren’t required to prove rape. As Justice Malik noted, “the reflexive reaction of fear or threat in a victim may automatically lead to fight, flight or freeze responses”, which means that a lack of resistance should not be misinterpreted as consent, but rather understood as a psychological response to trauma.
These crucial aspects, unfortunately, were ignored by the majority on the bench when giving its verdict, leading to the deputy prosecutor general of Punjab stating that the prosecutor general’s office will consider filing a review petition in the Supreme Court to overturn the decision, something that sadly still hasn’t happened.
While the strengthening of legislation pertaining to sexual crimes is most welcome, efforts must be made to ensure their effective and swift enforcement.
There must also be ongoing analyses of shortcomings in the existing legal framework, with necessary improvements incorporated into future iterations of the law. Most importantly, a fundamental shift in societal attitudes is essential to ensuring that survivors are treated with dignity and fairness at every stage of the justice process.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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