KARACHI: The chairperson of Sindh Commission on the Status of Women (SCSW), Nuzhat Shirin, has expressed her deep concern over the misuse of rape laws in Sindh.

In a statement issue by the SCSW on Saturday, it said that there have been a number of cases of alleged rape monitored by the commission recently about which details have emerged revealing many of these allegations to be false.

“The Commission notes that unfortunately in a number of these cases, rape allegations have been used for personal or political motives. It is also noted that in a number of horrifying instances in which rape has genuinely occurred, the progress of these cases is often hampered by misleading medical reports, delays in reporting and testing or by having the wrong FIR sections applied to them,” the statement read.

“For example, if the Commission monitors six rape cases in one month, four of those cases will be found as non-genuine, and the remaining two genuine cases will be neglected by the relevant authorities.

“The Commission genuinely fears that rape laws are being increasingly misused. The gravity of this situation cannot be understated, as the misuse of these laws have a number of particularly harmful effects. The first is that false allegations have the potential to lead to wrongful imprisonment of innocent persons, and in doing so, may well lead to the violation of our constitutional liberties and to the degradation of our criminal justice system,” says the statement.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2021