Pakistan Parliament Approves Chemical Castration for Habitual Rapists

When the new anti-rape Bill was passed in Pakistan, Mushtaq Ahmed, a senator from the Jamaat-e-Islami party protested against it, describing it as "un-Islamic" and against Sharia. He said that a rapist should be hanged publicly and that there is no precedent of castration in Sharia.

Pakistani politicians on Wednesday passed new legislation that will allow sexual offenders convicted of multiple rapes in the country to be chemically castrated. The Bill is a response to the massive outrage that has accompanied a recent surge in rapes of women and children in Pakistan.

The new legislation was passed almost a year after Pakistani President Arif Alvi approved the new anti-rape ordinance cleared by the country's cabinet which demanded chemical castration of rapists with the convict's consent.

According to Pakistan's national daily, Dawn, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2021 was passed along with 33 other Bills by the parliament's joint session on Wednesday and 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," the Bill states.

The newly passed legislation will also include measures such as the creation of a national sex-offenders register, the protection of victims' identities, and anti-rape crisis cells in public hospitals.

The process of chemical castration involves medications that reduce the male hormone, testosterone. Reportedly, it has been used as punishment for pedophiles in Indonesia since 2016 and child rapists in Poland since 2006.

It is also a lawful form of punishment in countries such as South Korea, the Czech Republic, and some states in the US.