PM supports public hanging, castration for sex offenders

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday called for chemical castration of those involved in rape cases so that they could not indulge in such heinous crime in future.

During an interview with a private news channel, the prime minister said he believed there should be chemical castration of rapists, which was in practice in many countries already, or they should be subjected to surgery. He explained that in case of murder, there was first degree, second and third degree in the same way, there should be grading in this matter.

“And, those who are in first degree, they should be castrated and operated upon to disable them to repeat such crime in future,” the prime minister emphasised while speaking about the recent motorway rape incident. He conceded that this had shaken the nation, sending shockwaves.

On becoming prime minister in initial days, he said he was told by the Islamabad IGP that sex crimes were rising against women as well as children. The prime minister called for a three-pronged strategy to deal with rape, sexual abuse cases, starting with registration of sex offenders and paedophiles.

The second step, he explained, to deal with rapists and child sexual abusers, was to hand them exemplary punishments, and called for hanging them in public for they ruined children’s lives as well as of their parents. He remarked that one could not know exactly how many cases occur as they were under reported.

Regarding public hanging of rapists, he noted that the government came to conclusion that the action of public hanging would not be internationally acceptable in view of the GSP accorded to Pakistan by EU which could be revoked.

Speaking on the coronavirus pandemic, the prime minister said despite controlling the virus a new severe wave of coronavirus may come in the country in winter, so people need to be careful. He pointed out that India had made the same mistake on the issue of the virus that Pakistan’s political parties were asking him to commit.

On a comparative review of the coronavirus with India, the premier said that India’s economy is the most affected by the pandemic due to the poverty that has come to India due to the complete lockdown. He added that this is why the world including the World Health Organisation is praising Pakistan and telling others to learn from Pakistan.

The prime minister said that the first achievement of his team is that they saved Pakistan from default. “Our reserves were depleted, we could not repay our loans abroad. Yes, we were under pressure from all sides and it was a very difficult time,” hesaid. “We were afraid that if we defaulted on our payments, it would have a direct impact on the rupee, and when the rupee falls, everything becomes more expensive and poverty increases,” he added.

Imran Khan said that the opposition has an agenda, and it is not the national democratic opposition, which protects the interests of the people. He said the opposition’s only agenda is to blackmail the government in some way to save the corruption of their leaders.

The prime minister admitted that the PML-N’s criticism that Pakistan should have gone to the IMF soon, was correct, but the government was trying not to go at that time. “The first attempt was to get so much money from our friends that we didn’t have to go, but we realised that it was a big deal that they gave us money because it saved us from default while I admit we didn’t have the experience because we didn’t have as much as we expected,” he said.

He remarked that when criminals enter politics, they protect the interests of their class rather than the country, and they harm the country more than the enemy. He did not believe Nawaz Sharif would return to the country though the government would try to bring him back.

Meanwhile, the PML-N submitted an amendment bill in the Senate calling for the public execution of those convicted in child sexual abuse cases. The PML-N Senator Javed Abbasi submitted the Children’s Amendment Bill in the Senate which also calls for keeping the child abuser sentenced for life, in jail till the convict doesn’t die.

Another amendment to the bill mandates that the hearing of child sexual abuse cases will be conducted at the high courts instead of the sessions courts. The proposed bill states that the high court will be bound to wrap up rape and sexual abuse cases within two months and an appeal against the decision of the said court can be challenged only at the Supreme Court.

The bill submitted to the Senate also stated that the apex court will wrap up the hearing of the appeal within two weeks. The punishments in the bill will apply to the sexual abuse of children up to the age of 18.

Meanwhile, the government and the opposition in the National Assembly were unanimous for exemplary punishment for the accused in the tragic incident of gang rape on Lahore-Sialkot Motorway and mostly legislators in the debate demanded public hanging for such heinous crimes.

The House also witnessed the uproar and strong protest from the women legislators of the opposition during the speech of Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior and Accountability Barrister Shahzad Akbar. The women parliamentarians gathered in front of the speaker’s dice and chanted slogans of “Shame Shame” and whosever is the friend of CCPO is a traitor (CCPO Ka Jo Yar Hai Gaddar Hai).

Shahzad Akbar told the House that one rapist was arrested within 72 hours of the incident, while he second culprit would also be arrested soon. He said that the CCPO has also been given notice on his statement. He alleged that not only him, but the CCPO received threats form the PML-N.

As Shahzad Akbar concluded his speech, Speaker Asad Qaiser adjourned the hearing amid strong protest of the opposition. Earlier, taking part in the debate, Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari said a woman should be respected and given all the due rights entitled to men. She said women are equal citizens and stressed the need to change the mentality of men. She termed the CCPO Lahore’s statement unacceptable and said more women should be employed in the police force.

Dr Shireen Mazari said if Shahbaz Sharif has such a pain for women then he should also talk about the Model Town incident. “We should also talk about capital punishment with too much care as in many countries there was capital punishment, but the crime did not reduce,” she said.

Speaker Asad Qaiser asked the lawmakers to think about public hanging by studying the laws of other countries as no way is left to end such kind of crime. Parliamentary Leader of the PML-N Khawaja Asif said Islam calls for public punishment and the PML-N legislator Khel Das Kohistani has submitted the bill for public punishment for the heinous crime, which is under consideration in the standing committee.

PPP-P’s Abdul Qadir Patel asked the government to arrest the culprits involved in the incident. He said that the government should accept its responsibility as this horrible incident had exposed the government’s inefficiency.

The PTI’s Amir Liaquat and JUI-F’s MNA Maulana Abdul Shakoor also demanded public hanging of the culprits behind the Motorway incident.