Castration no longer a punishment under Anti-Rape Act, 2021

PM Imran Khan wanted to include chemical castration after 2020 motorway gangrape case

The provision to chemically castrate rapists has been scrapped from the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Bill, 2021 after the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) raised objections to it.

Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Justice Maleeka Bokhari announced in a press conference on Friday that the CII denounced the punishment as ‘un-Islamic’, following which it was removed from the bill before it was passed as an act in the joint session of parliament on Wednesday.

Bokhari furthered that article 227 of the constitution entailed that all laws passed in Pakistan would have to abide by Shariah and the Holy Quran. She revealed that Federal Law Minister Farogh Naseem led a government committee, which deliberated carefully to arrive at the decision.

The bill had previously stipulated that chemical castration was a possible punishment for serial rapists, which received criticism in parliament. Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Senator Mushtaq Ahmed was of the view that rapists should be hanged publicly but castration was not a possible means of retribution for sex offenders.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had been wanting to introduce the punishment after the gang rape of a woman on the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway last year sent shockwaves through the nation.

The Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Bill, 2021 has been deemed a historic effort by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government with Bokhari having said that it would allow for swift dispensation of justice to the aggrieved. Under the act, special courts would be set up to address rape cases, anti-rape crisis cells would be set up in hospitals, independent support advisors would be allowed to accompany victims to court, amongst other provisions to deal with the heinous crime.