Supreme Court to judge rape case

Ms Mai has fought a three-year campaign for justice

Pakistan's Supreme Court has intervened in a legal tussle between two courts judging a controversial gang rape.

The move comes in the case of Mukhtar Mai who was raped in Punjab in 2002, allegedly on tribal council orders.

Five men found guilty in the case were acquitted by the Lahore High Court at the start of March - a ruling then suspended by an Islamic Sharia court.

The Supreme Court now says it is taking over the case which has shocked rights groups in Pakistan and overseas.

Competing jurisdictions

The BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says the move is clearly aimed at avoiding further inter-court controversy in the case.

Chief Justice Nizamuudin Siddiqui instructed both courts to send the case files to the Supreme Court so that it could assess all legal issues involved in the trial.

He said the court would also assess the matter of competing jurisdictions.

Mukhtar Mai was raped in a remote village in southern Punjab by several people, allegedly on the instructions of a local council or panchayat. Six of the 14 accused were found guilty by the trial court, and were sentenced to death.

But a Lahore High Court appeal bench overturned the decision on 3 March, acquitting five men, and reducing the sentence of a sixth to life imprisonment.

That ruling prompted widespread protests by women's rights groups, with Mukhtar Mai declaring that she would take her case to the Supreme Court.

Last week, the Sharia court intervened to suspend the High Court's decision shortly before those acquitted were due to be released.

It ruled that cases of moral crime, such as gang rape, should be dealt with in accordance with Islamic law, and fell within the jurisdiction of Sharia courts.