PAKISTAN. RIGHTS GROUPS SLAM GANG RAPE VERDICT

Pakistani human rights groups criticised the government and police after a court overturned the convictions of five men sentenced to death in a high-profile gang-rape case. They said authorities had failed to protect witnesses to the 2002 attack on Mukhtiar Mai, who herself went on to become an activist, meaning the high court in central Multan city had no choice but to uphold the appeals. 
"We are disappointed that persons involved in a most heinous crime have been able to escape punishment and that the victim has instead been forced to pay the price for the State's failure to ensure justice," said I.A Rehman, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Mai was raped on the orders of a tribal council in the village of Meerwala in Punjab province in June 2002, as a so-called honour punishment for her brother's alleged affair with a woman of a powerful rival clan.
The case shocked the country and sparked international outrage.
Later the same year an anti-terrorist court in Punjab province sentenced six men to death by hanging and acquitted another eight defendants.
However lawyers said Thursday that five convicts had been acquitted, while a sixth had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. The court also rejected an appeal by Mai against the earlier eight acquittals.
Shehnaz Bukhari, chief of the Progressive Women's Association in Islamabad and a former winner of the US Civil Courage Award, said she was "shocked" by the successful appeal.
She blamed the government for not ensuring the case proceeded properly and for not providing security to potential witnesses.
"Such verdicts will only encourage our male-dominated society to exploit women," she added. "The government's claims to protect women's rights are just hollow statements to improve its image in Western countries," human rights activist and legal expert Hina Jilani said.