Pakistan top court upholds death penalty of man who raped 8-year-old girl

• SC rejects appeal against death penalty in rape case
• Apex court uphold death sentence previously awarded to the accused
• Ali Haider alias Pappu, a resident of Vehari, was convicted of raping an eight-year-old girl

The Supreme Court (SC) denied on Friday an appeal against the death penalty of a man convicted of raping an eight-year-old girl.

The apex court upheld the death sentence which had previously been awarded to the accused.

The appeal had been filed Ali Haider alias Pappu, a resident of Vehari.

Read more: Supreme Court throws out convict’s appeal against death sentence in 2003 Rimsha rape, murder case

A nine-page judgment of the SC has been written by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, in which it has been directed that the government should amend section 510 of the Criminal Law relating to chemical inspection and a copy of the decision to amend the law should be sent to the law ministry.

The court ruled that the government should stop accepting any official forensic report, and that only DNA reports be used as admissible evidence in rape and murder cases.

According to official statistics from 2020, at least 11 rape incidents are reported in Pakistan every day with over 22,000 cases reported to police across the country in the last six years.

Read more: 11 rape incidents reported across Pakistan every day

However, only 77 accused have been convicted which is 0.3% of the total figure.

These statistics were obtained from the police, Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Women's Foundation and provincial welfare agencies.