Pakistan’s top judge has called for a court hearing into the public flogging of a teenage girl, which was captured on video and shown around the world. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has ordered police and government officials from the north-western Swat Valley to bring the girl to court next week. The film shows apparent Taleban members holding her down and hitting her with a strap as she cries out in pain.Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has condemned the incident as “shameful”.
Local sources said the girl had been accused of illicit relations with a man and that the flogging took place about a month and a half ago. Since then, the provincial government in the North West Frontier Province agreed to implement Sharia law as part of a peace deal with militants there. A press release quoted Chief Justice Chaudhry – who was only recently restored to office – as saying the action was a cruel violation of fundamental rights that gave Pakistan a bad name.
– BBC, 3 April 2009 (Read full report in BBC site/South Asia)
