ABOUT two years ago the Parliament enacted the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2011, for punishing those causing hurt to anyone by using any corrosive substance, including acid. A bill in this regard was moved by MNA Marvi Memon, which was passed by the National Assembly and Senate following which the President assented to it in Dec 2011. Through the Act several changes were introduced in the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

The Act provides for maximum sentence of life imprisonment and minimum of up to 14 years with fine of Rs1 million for the offence of hurting a person with corrosive substances. Following these amendments the words `disfigure` and `deface` were added in Section 332 of the PPC, dealing with different kinds of hurt, and also adds an explanation to the said section, which states `disfigure means disfigurement of face or disfigurement or dismemberment of any organ or any part of the organ of human body which impairs or injures or corrodes or deforms the symmetry or appearance of a person.

Furthermore, through that amendment Section 336B was added in PPC which says: `Whoever causes hurt by corrosive substanceshall be punished with imprisonment for life or imprisonment of either description which shall not be less than 14 years and a minimum fine of one million rupees.

However, legal experts believe that the government should introduce a law exclusively dealing with acid attacks. Through the present Act the issue of sale and purchase of corrosive substances has not been addressed.

Recently, Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan di-rected the federal government to make suitable amendments to the law for regulating the sale and purchase of acids as incidents of violence against women through use of acid were on the rise.

Hearing a bail petition of a suspect arrested on charges of smug-gling certain chemicals, the chief justice on Oct 9 observed that there were lacunas in the existing laws due to which the perpetrators of acid attacks on women were encouraged.

He observed that the law should clearly spell out which would be the authority to issue licence for sale of acids; who can sell and purchase it; and for what purpose purchase of acid would be permissible.In South Asia, Bangladesh was the first country to enact acid related laws. In March 2002, the government enacted the Acid Crimes Control Act 2002 and the Acid Control Act 2002. The first law is aimed at controlling acid crimes by introducing strict punishments including death penalty. The variations of punishment depend on the parts of the body affected with acid attack.

The sentence for killing of a person by acidor injuring a person resulting in loss of vision, loss of hearing, or damage or disfigurement of the face, breasts or sexual organs can result in capital punishment or rigorous imprisonment for life along with fine.

Similarly, under the Acid Control Act 2002 the unlicencedproduction, import, transport, storage, sale and use of acid became punishable with three to 10 years jail and the same applies to the possession of chemicals and equipment for the unlicenced production of acid. The National Acid Control Council (NACC) and District Acid Control Committees (DACC) were established under this act.

Legal experts in Pakistan believe that theyalso have to improve the medico-legal and criminal justice system for curbing acid attacks against women. Advocate high court Shahnawaz Khan recalled that in 2001 the government had amended the CrPC and introduced Section 174-A which provided mechanism for prosecution of cases where women are victims of burns either through stove-burst or acid throwing. He stated that due to lack of awareness among public functionaries concerned that section was yet to be properly implemented.

Section 174-A CrPC makes it binding on doctor who attends a burn victim to record the victim`s statement, which becomes admissible as `dying declaration` if the victim dies. Similarly, under this section in-charge of a police station is bound to register a case of hurt, murder/attempt to murder, as the case may be, immediately on receipt of information of the burn case. The officer would also send copies of the FIR to the magistrate, district police officer and district and sessions judge.

Mr Khan stated that apart from creating awareness of existing laws among people, it was necessary to check the uncontrolled production, sale and purchase of acid.