Islamabad (Agencies): The Senate Standing Committee on Interior has requested that the Upper House take up a bill seeking public hanging of those found guilty of kidnapping or raping children under the age of 14.
Committee’s chairman Rehman Malik said in a letter that the amendments to the existing legislation, which have been approved by the Senate committee, seek changes to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in relation to punishments for the offence of the kidnapping of children.
The bill proposed by the committee, entitled the Criminal Law Amendment Act 2018, seeks to amend the Pakistan Penal Code Act 1860's Section 364-A (kidnapping or abducting a person under the age of 14) so that the punishment for the crime is a public execution.
Section 364-A currently reads: "Whoever kidnaps or abducts any person under the [age of fourteen] in order that such person may be murdered or subjected to grievous hurt... or to the lust of any person [sic] shall be punished with death."
The amendment seeks to add the phrase, "by hanging publicly", after the word "death" in the current legislation, the letter said.
The bill seeks the same amendment to the CrPC, 1898, Schedule II, Column 1 against Section 364-A.
Malik in the letter requested the House take up the bill before the current Senate session ends, adding that Zainab’s killer should be made an example of by executing him publicly.
