A parliamentary body on Thursday unanimously approved "The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2017" seeking rigorous punishment for people found involved in gruesome crime of cannibalism. A sub-committee of National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior, which met with MNA Naeema Kishwar Khan in the chair, passed the bill seeking strict punishment for people found involved in cannibalism and exhumation of corpse to cook, eat or sell any organ or part of corpse or to use it for magic or any purpose.
The bill was moved by MNAs Iqbal Qadri, Aliya Kamran and Nikhat Shakeel Khan. The bill seeks amendment in Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 (XLV of 1860) and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1998 (V of 1898).
The bill seeks insertion of three sections into the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), 1860 after Section 297, namely 297A, 297B and 297C.
The section 297-A says, "Whoever without due permission from competent authority exhumes corpse or any part of corpse shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may be extended to seven years and shall also be liable to a fine which shall not be less than three hundred thousand rupees."
The section 297-B says, "Whoever ingests or consumes or attempts to ingest or consume the blood or flesh of a human being or flesh of corpse shall be published with rigorous imprisonment for at term which may extend to 14 years and which shall not be less than ten years and with fine which shall not be less than five hundreds thousands rupees."
The section 297C says, "Whoever exhumes corpse or any part of corpse with intent to cook, eat or to sell it or to use for magic any organ or removes hair of female corpse, cooks any part of these corpses or eats or sells any organ of these corpses shall be punished with imprisonment for life or with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than 10 years and shall also be liable to a fine which shall not be less than five hundred thousand rupees."
According to objects and reasons of bill, an act to exhume corpse or to cook, eat or sell any organ or part of corpse or use it for magic or any purpose is not only indignity to the corpse but also insults and hurts feelings of the heirs of the corpse.
Likewise, digging out a corpse or an organ or part of a corpse with intent to use it for the purpose of witchcraft and wizardry and ingestion of human flesh or of corpse is disrespectful to human dignity as well as forbidden in religion. Since there is no provision of law for such gruesome crimes and existing punishment provided in section 297 of PPC is not sufficient and requires to be enhanced.
However, a senior official of Ministry of Interior during the previous meeting opposed the bill on the grounds that the ministry has no huge data on the issue and only two to four cases have so far been reported; therefore, it is not necessary to do legislation over it.
The committee also discussed "The Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act 2016" moved by MNA Mussarat Ahmad Zeb seeking increase in punishment for child pornography and sexual abuse of minors.
Ahmad Zeb said that existing punishment in the PPC for this heinous crime is very small; therefore, it should be enhanced up to death or life imprisonment.
"In other countries there is a death punishment for child pornography but unfortunately we have taken it very lightly which is one of the main reasons behind growing cases of child pornography in the country," she said.
Syed Javed Ali Shah and Salman Khan Baloch supported the bill and decided to discuss in the next full committee meeting as well as directed the Ministry of Law and Justice to submit its input in this regard.
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Dr Mirza Ali Mehsud said the ministry supports the bill but the punishment proposed in the bill should be reduced to a reasonable level.