ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Assembly adopted on Friday a resolution calling for the public hanging of offenders convicted of sexual abuse and harassment of children.
The resolution was tabled by parliamentary affairs minister Ali Mohammad Khan and approved with a sizeable majority. The minister told the National Assembly that Prime Minister Imran Khan wanted to introduce the death penalty for anyone found guilty of child rape.
The opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), meanwhile, objected to the resolution, saying that any such move would not result in a reduction of crime. Senior PPP leader and former PM Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said the practice of public hanging violates the laws of the United Nations. “Pakistan is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and any move to implement public hanging would be met with an international backlash,” Ashraf warned.
While the resolution was presented by the ruling PTI and a majority of its lawmakers backed it, some members of the federal cabinet distanced themselves from it.
Condemning the resolution, science and technology minister Fawad Chaudhry posted on Twitter: “This is just another grave act in line with brutal civilisation practices. Societies should act in a balanced way, barbarity is not an answer to crimes. This is another expression of extremism,” he said.
Human rights minister Shireen Mazari also denounced the resolution tabled by a lawmaker of her own party. “The resolution passed in the NA today on public hangings was across party lines and not a government-sponsored resolution but an individual act,” she tweeted. “Many of us oppose it. Our ministry of human rights strongly opposes this. Unfortunately, I was in a meeting and was not able to go to the NA,” Mazari added.
Before tabling the resolution, the NA was briefed about sexual harassment of children in the federal capital of Islamabad. According to the briefing, there were 60 cases registered in Islamabad in 2019, while 66 were registered in 2018. The lawmakers were told that 80 people accused of sexually harassing children had been detained in 2018, against 75 nabbed in 2019. However, only one of the accused was convicted, in 2019, while the remaining cases are still pending.
The resolution was tabled by parliamentary affairs minister Ali Mohammad Khan and approved with a sizeable majority. The minister told the National Assembly that Prime Minister Imran Khan wanted to introduce the death penalty for anyone found guilty of child rape.
The opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), meanwhile, objected to the resolution, saying that any such move would not result in a reduction of crime. Senior PPP leader and former PM Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said the practice of public hanging violates the laws of the United Nations. “Pakistan is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and any move to implement public hanging would be met with an international backlash,” Ashraf warned.
While the resolution was presented by the ruling PTI and a majority of its lawmakers backed it, some members of the federal cabinet distanced themselves from it.
Condemning the resolution, science and technology minister Fawad Chaudhry posted on Twitter: “This is just another grave act in line with brutal civilisation practices. Societies should act in a balanced way, barbarity is not an answer to crimes. This is another expression of extremism,” he said.
Human rights minister Shireen Mazari also denounced the resolution tabled by a lawmaker of her own party. “The resolution passed in the NA today on public hangings was across party lines and not a government-sponsored resolution but an individual act,” she tweeted. “Many of us oppose it. Our ministry of human rights strongly opposes this. Unfortunately, I was in a meeting and was not able to go to the NA,” Mazari added.
Before tabling the resolution, the NA was briefed about sexual harassment of children in the federal capital of Islamabad. According to the briefing, there were 60 cases registered in Islamabad in 2019, while 66 were registered in 2018. The lawmakers were told that 80 people accused of sexually harassing children had been detained in 2018, against 75 nabbed in 2019. However, only one of the accused was convicted, in 2019, while the remaining cases are still pending.
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