ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) will observe March 1 as Black Day throughout the country to show solidarity with the lady doctor raped on the premises of the Pakistan Petroleum (PPL) at Sui, Balochistan.

Lady doctors across the country will wear black Dupattas, while their male colleagues will wear black arm bands to show their support to the victim, Dr Shazia Khalid. This was stated by PMA President Dr Umar Ayub Khan at a press conference at the Rawalpindi Press Club camp office here.

He asked the government to pay compensation of Rs20 million to the victim to enable her and her husband to settle abroad as their life had already become a hell in this society where being a rape victim was a life-time stigma. However, he asked the government not to allow the doctor to leave the country till the ongoing judicial inquiry was over and the criminal and his accomplices, if any, were brought to book.

If she went abroad, then who would testify against the accused, he said. Responding to a query, Dr Khan said the PMA wanted a timeframe - which should be in days not months - for the judicial commission to complete the inquiry because "justice delayed is justice denied".

"I appreciate President Gen Pervez Musharraf for saying that the rapist must be hanged. Yes, he should be hanged from Minar-i-Pakistan so that others may take lesson from it. But there should be no further wastage of time," he said.