Ali Zafar Meesha Shafi Case: Meesha’s Appeal to Change Judge Gets Approved

Impartiality, a fair trial and due process are all what a judge must provide the accused and accuser with. If you start taking sides or granting favours for one party to the detriment of the other party, then you are not impartial and any decent and moral judge would recuse himself.

In Pakistan we have corruption as the governing system in both parliament, courts and all other levels of the system. So victims dont stand to get a fair treatment. The public has already determinded that Ali Zafar is innocent and go out of their way to malign and degrade Meesha Shafi. Nobody seems to care that they werent there and many things that Ali has claimed have been proven untrue (such as being proven innocent when no trial has taken place to determine that) and he further accused Ms Shafi of doing this for fame and foreign passport. Meesha has both fame, money and a Canadian citizenship. Lack of evidence does not mean he is innocent. Cases are dismissed due to lack of evidence every day across the world. But that does not mean the accused is innocent. Separate things.

Sexual harassment is common in pakistan. Ask any woman who uses public transportation and leaves her home to go out in public. It can be unpleasent stares or verbal or physical touching/groping or worse. It happens fast in the blink of the eye. Very hard to prove because even in public there arent witnesses because thats how discretely it happens. So yes it can absolutely happen in a house full of people. It can also happen in a studio during a jam session with multiple people present. Just because the other two females present then didnt see anything does not mean it didnt happen. It just means they didnt see anything. The discussion on sexual harassment and the MeToo movement is new to Pakistan although most of our female have first hand experience with harassment. Even in work place and education. But people should still stick to facts and not emotion. We also need to understand how victims react. Yes it is possible to be harassed and still be friendly with your abuser. Children who are abused by their brother or father dont leave their homes, do they? Women who are harassed at work by male colleagues or boss, dont just up and quit their jobs, do they? People need to read about the psychology or victims because they dont always act how we think they should. Until it happens to you, you dont know how you will react.

Degrading a woman because she is going after your "Ali Bhai" is misogyny in action. He is not your bhai and you dont know him. Only God knows. The comments people write about her ranging from calling her a liar and wanting cheap fame to wanting to sexually asssault her in the worst possible way makes my stomach churn. I cant understand this hate. Is this was the land of the pure treats its females? Is this islamic?

Understanding how our society works and how we mistreat rape and assault victims, it should come as no surprise that any Pakistani female would be crazy to come forward about such crimes. She knows she will be humiliated in public, disowned by her family and friends, lose her marriage and with that her reputation, and become ostracized and bear the brunt of social stigma. This is ALL she stands to gain. Pakistan does not have a monetary compensation scheme in place for victims. This is not fame. This is infame. Who would want such publicity? Look at the cost. Thats why our statistics of rape and abuse are low because most victims will never come forward. Harassment does not discriminate - whether you are a rich famous woman or a poor illiterate woman. It just happens.

So any female who does come forward is brave. She stands to gain nothing. These cases are notoriously hard to prove (even in the West but they dont victim blame/shame like we do ) and have low conviction rates. In Pakistanyou I doubt we have any longstanding convictions in such cases. Look up the cases of Dr. Shazia, Mukhtaran Mai, Sonia Naz (missing since 2007) and then come back and tell me how easy you think it is to come forward.

Let us leave this to the courts and hope justice will be served. Stop taking sides and stop defaming women because you dislike what she has to say, Let the court do their job and let us hope both get a fair trial with no special treatment.