KARACHI: A sessions court has awarded a life sentence to a young man who had raped a minor boy within the premises of a private school situated in the North Nazimabad area.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Mirza Tauseef Ahmed, who is also the presiding officer of the Gender-Based Violence Court (Central), found 21-year-old Muhammad Sameer guilty on two counts and awarded him sentences of life imprisonment for committing rape and 14 years’ imprisonment for sexually assaulting the minor boy in 2021.

The court also imposed a total fine of Rs2 million; on default, he would serve additional imprisonment.

“The victim is only four and a half years old and had never been exposed to any sexually explicit act. Expecting him to give a perfect narration of the sexual act would be unjustified. It is highly improbable that he would falsely implicate the accused, nor is it expected that his father would fabricate such allegations, as no father would wish to stigmatise his son at such a tender age with an allegation that could ruin his future. Therefore, it is unreasonable to believe that the father of the victim fabricated the case. Rather, it stands proved that the accused took advantage of the tender age of the victim and subjected him to sodomy/unnatural offence for the satisfaction of his sexual lust.”

According to state prosecutor Hina Naz Shams, the complainant, a rickshaw driver, testified in court that in August 2021, his four-year-old son shared his ordeal with his mother. She later informed him [the father] that while playing, the child had gone onto the school premises to retrieve his ball, during which the son of the school’s gatekeeper (the accused) committed the offence with the boy.

The prosecutor added that during cross-examination, the complainant stated that he did not wish to pursue the case and informed the court that he had no objection to the accused being acquitted, as he had pardoned him after the accused’s family brought the Holy Quran to his home and requested forgiveness.

However, in his examination, the survivor identified the accused through an online video appearance before the court. He denied having pardoned the accus­­ed and said that he did not know whether his father had forgiven the accused or not.

In the detailed verdict, the judge noted that the medical evidence corroborated the oral testimony of the prosecution witnesses.

He added that the accused himself admitted that he resided with his father in the premises of the school, which confirms his presence at the place of occurrence and removes any doubt about his availability there at the time of the offence.

Regarding the defence contention that no independent eyewitness was exam­i­ned, the court obser­ved that the incident occur­red inside a “narrow gallery of the school surrounded by walls, making the presence of private witnesses improbable.” A case had been registered at the Taimuria police station under Section 377 (rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2026