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Criminal Law (Amendment) (Offences Relating to Rape) Act, 2016 (Act XLIV of 2016).

Country(ies)

Pakistan

Subjects (Classification)

Equality of opportunity and treatment; Criminal and penal law

Adopted on (Date of text)

2016-10-22

Scope of text

National

Type of legislation (Type of text)

Law, Act

Abstract/Citation

The Criminal Law (Amendment) (Offences Relating to Rape) Act 2016 amends the Pakistan Penal Code of 1860, which penalised the offence of rape against women in 2006.
Section 2 amends Section 55 of the Penal Code and makes offences related to rape non commutable.

The Act amends Section 376 of the Penal Code establishing that whoever commits rape of a minor or a person with mental or physical disability shall be punished with death or life imprisonment, including public servants such as police officers, medical officers or jailers, who, taking advantage of their official position, commit rape. Section 367A of the Penal Code is also amended, prohibiting the disclosure of the identity of the victim of rape. The Act also inserts a new section providing for the obligation of the investigation officer to record the statement of the victim in presence of a female police officer or other female family members of the victim.

Finally, the Act deletes Article 151(4) of the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order, 1984 (P.O. No. 10 of l984) which provided that "the credit of a witness may be impeached in the following ways by the adverse party, or, with the consent of the Court, by the party who calls him:...(4) when a man is prosecuted for rape or an attempt to ravish, it may be shown that the prosecutrix was of generally immoral character."