LAHORE:Punjabhasthe highest rape incidents recorded every year, and only in July 2017, reported cases have reached 150, as per reports by women rights organisation Aurat Foundation. These are only the reported cases.

On Thursday, human rights activists condemned both rape cases that took place in Multan under a family council.

`The fact that the rape took place was bad enough butthenarevengerapethat took place underthe patronage of the first survivor`s family, shows the kind of mindset that prevails all over the country,` said Mumtaz Mughal, Aurat Foundation`s Punjab director.

`The `panchayat` system is a serious malady that especially affects the small towns and rural areas and despite it being illegal as a para-judicial system, the government seems to ignore the fact that they are making such decisions.

She said that the cases that the public knew of were only those that were reported. There must be hundreds others which stayed hidden.

`Till there is no implementation mechanism, nothing can happen,` she said. `We should have learn a lesson and make changes when the Mukhtaran Mai incident happened and we were globally embarrassed.

But we did nothing to implement our laws.

According to the local government, the local panchayat has been accommodated in rural areas while in urban areas this is known as `masalehaati anjuman`.

However, criminal cases do not fall under their purview.