In a first, Karachi man sentenced to three years in jail over marital rape

A man was sentenced to three years in jail after a session court in Karachi convicted him of marital rape - becoming the first person to be sentenced under Section 377 (unnatural offences) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The reserved verdict was announced by the Additional Sessions Judge South, Ashraj Hussain Khowaja. The convict, named Javed, was found guilty of forcing his wife into non-consensual sex.

The woman had been enduring forced marital rape since the beginning of her marriage on July 23, 2022, according to the prosecution.

The victim had shared her ordeal with her mother-in-law, but her pleas went unheeded. After which, the complainant informed her brother and sister, and lodged an FIR under Section 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on November 23, 2022, at the Chakiwara police station.

The judge imposed a three-year term of rigorous imprisonment on the convict and imposed a Rs30,000 fine.

Failure to pay the fine would result in an additional one-month term of imprisonment for the convict, the judge said in a verdict.

“From perusal of evidence brought at the trial by the prosecution, it appears that the victim has fully established commission of sodomy with her by the accused being her husband,” the judge maintained.

“Though the victim/complainant contradicted some facts relating to the period of her stay with the accused, putting her signature on memo of site inspection at PS, suffering from disease of piles and her age which are immaterial facts which would not be fatal to the prosecution case,” he added.

The judge remarked that the accused failed to prove any "enmity" that her wife was in a relationship with someone else and thus implicated him falsely. 

He noted that even the convict's sisters, appearing as defense witnesses, were unable to disclose the name of the alleged paramour of the victim.

As per Advocate Bahzad Akbar from the Legal Aid Society, who was also the counsel of the complainant, under the amended Section 375 of the Pakistan Penal Code, sodomy falls under the definition of rape and marital rape.

"While I cannot confirm for other provinces, this is certainly the first conviction for marital rape in Sindh following the amendment," he said.