Pakistan's apex court on Tuesday pressed lawyers for clearer answers on Supreme Court DNA evidence standards in an Islamabad rape appeal involving a 25-year-old woman who cannot hear or speak. Justices Malik Shahzad Ahmad and Shakeel Ahmad paused the sitting after flagging three unresolved points of law, among them whether a guilty verdict may rest on genetic laboratory findings alone.
What the high court already held
Remarks from the bench indicated that the high court had already imposed a life term that leaned heavily on a DNA match, and that its judgment also treated the survivor as mentally disabled. The accused's lawyer told the justices she never gave her own account before the trial court, which instead heard her mother. Counsel also invoked an earlier apex-court decision saying a DNA match by itself could not carry a conviction. Justice Shakeel Ahmad replied that the facts of that earlier matter were not the same as those now before the court.
How genetic testing entered the dispute
Defence submissions described how the young woman told her mother of abdominal pain in the fifth month of pregnancy, after which a medical check confirmed she was expecting. The survivor's lawyer said a DNA comparison of the child matched the accused, whom counsel named as both a neighbour and a maternal uncle. Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad noted the mother's claim that her daughter pointed out the accused before two witnesses, and observed that such identification would, on its face, cast doubt on assertions of mental disability. Justice Shakeel Ahmad stressed the need to test whether she could grasp and convey what had been done to her. He also recalled that earlier apex-court practice calls for specialists when someone with hearing and speech limits must be understood in court.
Three questions left open
The bench asked counsel for further help on whether Supreme Court DNA evidence may by itself support a conviction; whether the survivor's difficulties are limited to hearing and speech or also include mental disability; and why no specialist was brought in at trial to interpret how she communicates. The sitting was then adjourned. The exchange does not settle the law on Supreme Court DNA evidence; it shows the justices want a sharper legal map before deciding the appeal.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Supreme Court ne Islamabad ke is rape appeal mein lawyers se mazeed jawab maange hain. Asal sawal yeh hai ke sirf DNA lab ki report se kisi ko guilty qaraar diya ja sakta hai ya nahi. High court pehle life sentence de chuki hai, lekin bari adalat ab DNA ki qanooni wazan, survivor ki samajh-o-bat, aur expert na bulane ki wajah maloom karna chahti hai. Faisla abhi nahi hua; case ruk kar mazeed dawa ke intizar mein hai.
