KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has upheld the 14-year imprisonment handed down to a school van driver by a trial court for sexually abusing a seven-year-old student.

A two-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro noted that the minor in her statement before a magistrate had disclosed all the material facts constituting an offence under Section 377-B (sexual abuse punishment) of Pakistan Penal Code, and nothing in rebuttal has been brought on record by appellant to neutralise overwhelming truth in her testimony.

A sessions court had sentenced Owais Khan, van driver, to 14-year imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs1 million on him in September last year for sexually abusing the minor girl in 2023 during the pick-and-drop between her home and school in North Nizamabad.

Thereafter, the convict through his counsel had challenged the conviction order before the SHC.

After hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings of the case, the SHC dismissed the appeal and maintained the conviction order.

The bench in its order noted that the statement of victim was recorded under Section 164 of CrPC before a judicial magistrate in the presence of appellant.

It also noted that the reason why the victim was not brought in the trial for evidence has been adequately explained by the psychiatrist by stating that she had found the victim under severe anxiety and suffering from bouts of trauma.

The psychiatrist has also confirmed that further exposure of the victim to any inquiry would have been harmful to her and her opinion has reasonably and justifiably explained that non-examination of the victim was because she was scared stressed and harassed and therefore suffering from anxiety and trauma, it added.

The bench further said it was easily deducible from her evidence that victim’s condition was so fragile that further inquiry from her regarding the incident would have aggravated her physical and mental condition.

“Meaning thereby, the victim due to traumatizing episode suffered by her at the hands of appellant was too shocked to come to the court and give evidence recalling the same harrowing incident, which had damaged her tender mind and put her in perpetual insecurity”, it added.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2026