Mai seeks review of Pak SC's acquitting order

Islamabad: Mukhtar Mai, who gained international attention after being gangraped on the orders of a village council, on Thursday filed a petition in Pakistan's Supreme Court seeking a review of the acquittal of several men accused of assaulting her.

Mukhtar Mai's counsel - Aitzaz Ahsan, also a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan People's Party - filed the review petition.

She challenged an order issued by the apex court last month that upheld the Lahore High Court's verdict acquitting the men accused of raping her.

She sought the constitution of a larger bench of the apex court to hear the review petition.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had upheld the High Court's verdict and acquitted five of the six accused.

It also dismissed Mai's appeal against the decision of the High Court.

In 2002, Mukhtar Mai was a seamstress in Meerwala, a small village in Punjab province, when her 12-year-old brother was falsely accused of having an affair with a woman from the powerful Mastoi tribe.

To avenge the woman's honour, the village council ordered her gangrape.

While other women brutalised in so-called "honour crimes" have been shunned, Mai's family embraced her and took her to the authorities.

The Imam in her village preached against the outrage.

In June 2002, a case was filed under an Islamic law and the Anti-Terrorism Act against 14 suspects, including two members of the village council.

In August the same year, a lower court in Punjab awarded the death sentence to six of the accused, including the two village council members, and acquitted the other eight suspects.

In March 2005, the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court acted on an appeal filed by the accused and struck down the lower court's order. It acquitted five of the six accused and converted the death sentence given to Abdul Khaliq, one of the main accused, to life imprisonment.

The life sentence was upheld by the apex court.

Mai's struggle for her rights became a campaign for other deprived women.

With the money she received as compensation from courts after a three-year legal battle, she built her village's first girl's school and launched the Mukhtar Mai Women's Welfare Organisation.