PESHAWAR, May 11: The Peshawar High Court upheld on Wednesday a decree issued against seven health professionals, including three doctors, charged with attempting to sexually assault a girl and keeping her in illegal confinement. A two-member bench, comprising Justice Shehzad Akber Khan and Justice Fazalur Rehman Khan, dismissed a civil appeal filed by the seven appellants. However, the court reduced the compensation of Rs5 million issued in favour of the girl to Rs2 millions.

A court in Timergarah (Lower Dir) had declared a declaratory suit in favour of the victim, Ms Yasmeen, and issued a decree directing the seven appellants to pay compensation as damages to the tune of Rs5 million.

The victim had claimed that because of the act of the seven appellants she had undergone mental torture, and had damaged her modesty and chastity in the eyes of the public.

The appellants included three doctors — Anwarzada, Rafiuddin and Mohammad Riaz — and four dispensers — Qazi Abdul Haleem, Abdur Rehman, Mohammad Raheem and Anwarul Haq.

The high court has to face a question: what could be the worth of the modesty and chastity of a woman?

The bench consulted various judgments even of the Indian courts and decided to reduce the compensation to Rs2 million. The bench observed that the amount could not reduce the humiliation faced by the girl, especially when her case had been lingering on for over 12 years.

The girl was undergoing treatment at district headquarters hospital, Timergarah, and was admitted to a private room in Nov 1992. The seven people had allegedly entered her room and teased her on different pretext including body search.

To stop their advances, the girl raised an alarm following which they locked her in the room and claimed that she was mentally deranged. The victim was kept in confinement for more than 24 hours and later a senior doctor came to her rescue.

The incident was reported in newspapers on the basis of which the victim filed a damages suit before the court of Zila Qazi (district and sessions judge).

The enraged public in the area had also taken out procession and set on fire the residence of Ms Yasmeen, stating that the incident had brought a bad name to the family.

The appellants counsel contended that the case be remanded back to the trial court as the compensation mentioned by the court was very high. They contended that while issuing a decree the character of a party should also be considered.

The bench observed that according to the evidence on record the girl belonged to a noble family and she had to suffer continuous torture. The bench added that the issue was reported in newspapers. It was observed that even when another incident occurred in the same hospital after sometime the newspapers had again mentioned the previous incident with it.

Advocate Mohammad Alam appeared for the plaintiff-girl and argued that she had been suffering for more than a decade. He argued that the incident had ruined her life.