A Pakistani court has ordered the noses and ears of two men be cut off after they did the same to a young woman whose family spurned a marriage proposal from one of them, a prosecutor said today.

The anti-terrorism court in the eastern city of Lahore said it was applying Islamic law.

The prosecutor, Chaudhry Ali Ahmed, said one of the accused, Sher Mohammad, was a cousin of the 19-year-old woman and wanted to marry her. Her parents refused.

Sher Mohammad and a friend, Amanat Mohammad, were accused of kidnapping the woman and cutting off her ears and nose in September this year.

Both men were jailed for 50 years yesterday and told to pay fines and compensation to the woman amounting to several thousand dollars, the prosecutor said.

Pakistan's legal system has Islamic elements that sometimes lead to orders for harsh punishments, but the sentences are often overturned and rarely carried out. Serious crimes are often referred to anti-terrorism courts in Pakistan because they move faster.

Violence against women, especially attacks by spurned lovers, also occurs frequently in this impoverished South Asian nation.

The men have seven days to appeal, Ahmed said.