Advertisement
Advertisement

New Pakistan law allows chemical castration of serial rapists

By:
Reuters
Published: Nov 18, 2021, 13:12 UTC

By Asif Shahzad ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has introduced chemical castration as a possible punishment for serial rapists under a law that also calls for faster trials of suspected sexual offenders, a government official said on Thursday.

New Pakistan law allows chemical castration of serial rapists

By Asif Shahzad

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan has introduced chemical castration as a possible punishment for serial rapists under a law that also calls for faster trials of suspected sexual offenders, a government official said on Thursday.

Parliament passed the law on Wednesday and it came into effect immediately, government official Waqar Hussain said.

Chemical castration, carried out by the use of drugs and reversible, is practised in Poland, South Korea, the Czech Republic and some U.S. states.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said last year he wanted to introduce the penalty amid a national outcry over increasing offences and the specific case of a mother of two driving along a major highway who was dragged out of her car and raped by two men at gunpoint.

Fewer than 3% of rapists are convicted in courts in Pakistan, according to the non-profit organisation, War Against Rape.

Amnesty International has called for investigations into the causes of sexual assaults instead of opting for harsher punishments.

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Nick Macfie)

About the Author

Reuterscontributor

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national, and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations, and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV. Learn more about Thomson Reuters products:

Did you find this article useful?

Advertisement