I grew up in a ‘Chak’ /village in Sargodha and I am aware that rural culture in Punjab is still virtually unchanged from the Middle Ages.
Things may have changed in the 70 odd years but in my time, word of your elders, right or wrong had to be obeyed without question and honour of the family depended largely upon the reputation /notoriety of the female members. Word of the local grandee landlord (often called Malek sahib) prevailed in arbitration of minor disputes. Many indigenous cultural values, even though without being in the Quran or Hadith were considered as undisputedly Islamic.
Since the many of the law makers, lawyers, police, bureaucrats as well as the judiciary emerge from the same society, they have similar cultural values. Under no law, innocent relation of the guilty is to be punished. Punishment for the guilty being:
1. Hadd punishment for ‘Zina’ where the women is unmarried is one hundred lashes according to Hudood Ordinance.
2. Pakistan Penal Code section 367 states:
That whoever commits rape shall be punished with death or imprisonment of no less than ten years the punishment years can increase to 25 year depending on the severity of the case and the criminal shall also be liable to fine.
If the rape is committed by two or more person with common intention like gang rapes the criminals should meet the fate of death or lifetime imprisonment.
This is clearly neither the case of human rights nor of religion; it is simply a blatant carriage of “INJUSTICE” carried out by the ignoramus elders. Ordering rape of the sister of the accused; a totally innocent party; is indicative of a barbaric streak in the Pakistan rural society. Obviously the ‘Age of enlightenment’ never reached many parts of Pakistan.
The need is change of the ‘Mind-set’ which can came only come from education. Regrettably, lack of condemnation from the political leaders suggests that such ‘Will’ does not exist in the Pakistan polity.