Supreme Court of Pakistan Monday gave an important decision declaring a two-finger test (TFT) for examination of sexual assault survivors an inadmissible proof.
The apex court of the country has also declared that doctors cannot conduct the two-finger test for determining the virginity of sexual assault survivors.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, in his 11-page judgment, said the constitution guarantees every citizen respect and honour and holding such a test is an insult to the women.
This judgment means that abolishing the two-finger test, which had been implemented in Punjab after a Lahore High Court decision, would now be implemented in the whole country.
The Supreme Court gave its judgment while hearing appeals in a rape case, in which the SC dismissed appeals of two accused Atif Nazir and Sherbaz, who are serving a life-imprisonment in the rape case.
The SC, however, declared the Lahore High Court’s decision to punish another co-accused Nafees Ahmed null and void.
The SC also ordered to arrest the two absconders in the case Sajid Hussain alias Jaaji and Waqas Hameed and has sought an implementation report from the Punjab IG in one month.
Earlier in January this year, in a landmark decision, The Lahore High Court (LHC) has declared virginity tests, including the two-finger test (TFT) for examination of sexual assault survivors "illegal and against the Constitution", saying they had "no forensic value" in cases of sexual violence.
In a 30-page judgement, Justice Ayesha A. Malik of the LHC wrote that the virginity test "offends the dignity of the female victim" and was contradictory to Article 9 and Article 14 of the Constitution, which are related to the security and dignity of a person.
The judgement declared that virginity tests are "discriminatory against the female victim as they are carried out on the basis of their gender [and] therefore offend Article 25 of the Constitution".
The judge directed the federal and provincial governments to take necessary steps to "ensure that virginity tests are not carried out in medico-legal examination of the victims of rape and sexual abuse".