National Assembly unanimously approves bill to control acid crimes

Offenders will now be punished with life or up to 40 years imprisonment, pay rupees one million to the victim.

QUETTA: The National Assembly on Tuesday unanimously approved the Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Bill 2010.

The bill was introduced last year by MNAs Marvi Memon, Begum Shahnaz Sheikh and Advocate Anusha Rehman in a bid to prevent growing incidents of violence against women.

Offenders will now be punished with life or up to 40 years imprisonment and will have to pay rupees one million to the victim.

Earlier, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Women Development had approved the bill which further amended the Pakistan Penal Code 1860.

The amendment in Section 336-B states, “Whoever causes hurt by corrosive substance shall be punished with imprisonment for life or imprisonment  of either  description which shall not be less than fourteen years and a minimum fine of one million rupees.”

The new insertion in Section 336-A states, “Whosoever with intention or knowingly causes or attempts to cause hurt by means of  a corrosive substance or any substance which is deleterious to human body when it is  swallowed, inhaled, come in contact or received into human body or otherwise shall  be said to cause hurt by corrosive substance.”