CRIME: A woman with awesome guile

It is amazing how Sonia Naz, co-accused with her clerk husband in a fraud case in Faisalabad, could deceive first the media and then the government and the judiciary at the highest levels. (She must have somehow learnt a great media secret: Wildest allegation makes biggest headlines, causes widest sensation and gets maximum sympathy.) Everybody assumed without a second thought that the accuser was right because she was a woman and the accused were guilty because they were policemen. (What happened to the oft-repeated maxim that everybody was innocent until proven guilty?)
Any sensible person, who watched Sonia’s interview on television, could see through her acting. A genuine rape victim does not speak so loudly, gives such graphic description and weeps so profusely. “The lady doth protest too much,” wrote Shakespeare in “Hamlet,” (Act III, Scene 2, line 242).
After appearing before the police inquiry team, Sonia refused to appear before the judicial tribunal, set up by the Punjab Government on the instructions of the Supreme Court. She probably realized that her tale was unraveling. (Calm questioning by policemen can establish facts more easily than shrill and convoluted cross examination by lawyers.) Apparently, her lawyers told her that she would go to jail if she made a statement under oath before the District Judge that later turned out to be not true. (Police inquiries are not under oath.) So, now she says that she will present evidence about her alleged rape only before the Supreme Court. (Can anybody assume the right to appear only before the highest court?)
And what evidence could she possibly have? Was she medically examined and tested for DNA that matched with those of the policemen? Did she have her own witnesses present? Did she arrange video recording of the whole thing? Rape is difficult to prove even under the best of circumstances.
With Sonia’s boycott of the judicial inquiry and no credible supporting evidence likely from any other source, ultimately the case will be quietly closed. Two questions will remain: a) Who will punish her for the baseless allegations against officers of law? b) Who will restore the honor of the policemen, who have already been devastated?
The Provincial Police Officer (IGP) may do that. He may register a case against Sonia under Section 211 of the Pakistan Penal Code and other legal provisions for making false accusations and, through the courts, get her punished and get his officers exonerated.
Don’t be surprised if some NGO adopts Sonia, parades her abroad as “an innocent victim of police brutality,” and starts collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars as donations (at the cost of the country’s prestige). Mukhtaran Mai, of Dera Ghazi Khan, has already set an example. She is reported to be a multimillionaire (along with her sponsoring NGO), while the High Court dismissed her case of gang rape for lack of evidence.
The bottom line? Sonia may have now got virtual immunity for herself (as well as her husband). No police officer will even come near her, not to speak of arresting her. Who would want to get into serious trouble at the hands of a blackmailer par excellence? As the Holy Qur’an says, while describing the false allegation of attempted rape against Hazrat Yusuf,“O womankind! Verily, awesome is your guile!” (Surat 12, Yusuf, ayat 28).