ISLAMABAD: Sex offenders convicted of multiple assaults could face chemical castration after Parliament passed a new legislation aimed at speeding up convictions and imposing tougher sentences.
A series of mass protests over the levels of sexual violence prompted the government to amend the law this year and allow for harsher punishments for rapists, including chemical castration for repeat offenders.
The bill was presented in response to a public outcry against the spike in incidents of sex attacks on women and children and growing demands for an effective curbing of the crime.
The passage of the bill comes almost a year after President Arif Alvi approved the new anti-rape ordinance, and cleared by the Cabinet, calling for the chemical castration of sex offenders with the consent of the convict and setting up of special courts for speedy trials.
The Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, was passed along with 33 other bills by the joint session of parliament on Wednesday. It seeks to amend the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860, and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898.
“Chemical castration is a process duly notified by rules framed by the prime minister, whereby a person is rendered incapable of performing sexual intercourse for any period of his life, as may be determined by the court through administration of drugs which shall be conducted through a notified medical board,” according to the bill.
Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan protested over the bill, saying it does not address the underlying reasons for widespread violence against women. He said a rapist should be hanged publicly and added there was no mention of castration in Islam.
Chemical castration, as it’s popularly known, has been practised all over the world for more than 50 years. Clinicians prefer the term “anti-libidinal psychopharmacological intervention”, and it consists of treating sex offenders with drugs that fall into two broad categories.
It is a legal form of punishment in countries including South Korea, Poland, the Czech Republic and in at least eight states in the US.
Before the new law, rape cases could drag on for years, mainly because of faulty investigations and flawed laws, making it difficult for victims to come forward to share their ordeal.
But while rights groups celebrated the law, Amnesty International expressed concern at the inclusion of a chemical castration punishment for repeat rape offenders, a process that involves an injection to lower testosterone levels.
Rimmel Mohydin, a south Asia campaigner at Amnesty International, accused the government of attempting to “deflect attention” from the root causes of sexual violence in Pakistan.
She said: “Forced chemical castrations would violate Pakistan’s international and constitutional obligations to prohibit torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Punishments like this will do nothing to fix a flawed criminal justice system.”
The new law comes months after the prime minister promised to remove deficiencies in existing legislation to expedite justice for rape victims. Imran Khan and his cabinet approved the legislation in November last.
