PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has ordered the release of a convicted rapist after he reached an out-of-court settlement to marry the hearing-impaired victim.
Dawlat Khan was awarded life imprisonment in May last by a lower court in Buner district of raping a woman in his extended family.
The PHC freed him on Monday after it accepted the settlement reached between the two families with the help of a local jirga (traditional council).
The 25-year-old convict was arrested after the unmarried victim delivered a baby earlier this year and a DNA test confirmed that he was the biological father of the child.
The rights activists have expressed concerns over the ruling of the Peshawar court, with some of the view that it would legitimise the sexual violence.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it was “appalled” by the decision of the court.
“Rape is a non-compoundable offence that cannot be resolved through a feeble ‘compromise’ marriage,” it said in a statement on Twitter.
In rural Pakistan, village councils known as jirgas or panchayats are formed of local elders who bypass the justice system, although their decisions have no legal value.
