ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of 22 people on the charge of gang rape.

All those whose appeals were dismissed by a three-judge bench, had been tried under Section 10-4 of the Enforcement of Hadd Ordinance, 1979.

When rape is committed by two or more people, punishment under the law is death.

The SC bench consisted of Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad, Justice Syed Deedar Hussain Shah and Justice Tanvir Ahmad Khan.

Those, whose conviction was upheld, are: Mushtaq Ahmad, Mohammad Ameer, Bashir Ahmad, Nazim, Bashir Ahmad, Aqeel, Ashiq, Rab Nawaz, Sajjad Ahmad, Mohammad Irfan Akram, Ali Imam, Azhar Mehmood, Mohammad Yar, Waheed Akhtar alias Baga, Qamaruzzaman, Naseer Ahmad, Rab Nawaz, Mohammad Mushtaq, Shehzad Masih, M.Yousaf, Abdul Jabbar and Iftikhar Ahmad.

The cases of two others, Syed Sohail and Sajjad Ahmad, being tried for the same offence, were adjourned till Nov 11 next.

The counsel for the 22 appellants, Raja Ibrahim Satti and Munir Paracha, contended that Section 10 of the Enforcement of Hadd Ordinance, 1979, was lacuna in the law, as the law provided no other punishment except death.

The counsel argued that, in the cases of gravest crime like high treason and murder, more than one punishment was provided.