PESHAWAR: Acid attacks, a crime that causes perpetual suffering to victims, continue in the country apparently owing to lack of strict laws to regulate the sale of acid.
Most of the developed countries and the United Nations have played an important role to curb the offence. However, the acid throwing cases in Pakistan are being reported every year from all the four provinces and both men and women become victims.
As per the report of the Pakistan chapter of the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF), the total number of reported acid attacks in 2015 was 69. Earlier, the acid attack cases totalled 153 in 2014 and 109 in 2013.
A Peshawar-based Supreme Court lawyer, Noor Alam Khan, who deals with such cases, has also conducted research on the Acid Throwing Crime.He based his research on the issue by comparing laws of various countries including Australia, the United Kingdom and United States on the acid attacks.
The lawyer said that these countries controlled the crime due to amendments in the Poison Act 1919 and by imposing harsh penalties on the culprits.Noor Alam Khan, also chairman of the organization Voice of Prisoners, showed his concern over easy access and availability of the dangerous acid in Pakistan. “This is the reason the culprits easily target the victims. I am dismayed on the role of rulers and lawmakers for not bringing amendments to award strict punishment in the Poison Act 1919 to control the crime,” he argued.
“The Poison Act 1919 was implemented in British India with a view to regulate the sale, transportation, import and possession of poisons, but the provisions of the Act are fairly old and unable to tackle the challenges of the modern world,” he added.
He suggested that the sale of poison and acids must be prohibited to the minors and teens as they were unaware of the horrible consequences of illegal usage of the substances and could be used by the culprits for transportation of such destructive material to the perpetrators. He pointed out that Section 16 of Australian Poison Act has also restricted the sale of poisons and acids to underage persons.
“The sellers and retailers of the poison should sell the poison to the purchasers who disclose their identity card (CNIC) and mention the purpose and usage of the purchased substance,” he maintained.
He said the recording of the sales in a register maintained by the seller would play an effective role to regulate the authenticated sale of poisons.In Pakistan, the acid and burn legislation has been proposed after the Supreme Court of Pakistan issued directive in 2009. The court advised the parliamentarians to legislate on acid and burn violence.
On December 12, 2011, MNA Marvi Memon’s private member bill was unanimously passed. Known as the Criminal Law Amendment Act 2011 (Act XXV) it makes acid and burn violence “a crime against the state,” imposes fine of Rs1 million on the perpetrators, and grants punishment of a minimum of 14 years to life-time imprisonment.
The Comprehensive Acid and Burn Crime Bill 2012 was tabled in the National Assembly on December 18, 2012 but it lapsed. It was resubmitted by Marvi Memon but no further action was taken on it by policymakers.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government planned to table this bill as a government bill in January 2013 but it remained pending. In Punjab, the bill was submitted to the Women Development Department in 2012 and discussed with the Punjab Law Department, but could not be tabled in the provincial assembly.
In Sindh, the bill was sent for review to the social welfare department in 2013 and the review process is quite slow. In Balochistan, the government decided in 2016 to start drafting a comprehensive legislation on acid violence whereas in Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan no substantial action has been taken with regard to the legislation.
