Pakistan’s judiciary has rejected a request by the Punjab government to form a judicial commission to probe the country’s biggest child abuse scandal involving almost 300 children, citing the ongoing police investigation. Reports of a 25-member gang of paedophiles making and selling videos of child sexual abuse in Punjab province’s Ganda Singh Wala area for the last 10 years surfaced on Saturday.
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Lahore High Court Chief Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik has declined the request for a judicial inquiry into the scandal in Punjab’s Kasur district, bordering India.
Lahore’s Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Tuesday termed the petition seeking trial of Kasur child abuse case in military court hearable, Dunya News reported.
Another four applicants filed their complaints at jail today with regards to the child abuse scandal. Prime accused Hasib Aamir has been arrested and remanded to police custody for interrogation.
On Monday Pakistan’s upper and lower houses of parliament passed unanimous resolutions condemning the abuse and demanding exemplary punishment for the culprits.
The parents of the victims were consistently blackmailed and coerced into paying hundreds of thousands of rupees with threats of releasing the videos in public.
Earlier when IGP Mushtaq Sukhera reached Kasur on the direction of CM SHahbaz Sharif, locals protested against biased behavior of police officials who according to them downplayed the issue.
Police arrested 13 accused after around 280 children were targeted in remote villages in Kasur district in a criminal offence that began in 2006.
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Meanwhile, Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Chairman Tahirul Qadri said such a crime could not occur without the protection of government and police officials.
