The Pakistan government on Saturday announced to set up an anti-rape crisis cells in the country's every district to curb the menace of rising cases of sexual violence.
The Ministry of Law issued a notification to constitute a 42-member Anti-Rape Ordinance Implementation Committee to supervise the establishment of these cells.
The committee, headed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Maleka Bokhari, has representatives of the Ministries of Human Rights, Health, Interior, the National Database Registration Authority (NDRA) and the provincial forensic agencies.
At the district level, the cell will be headed by the local deputy commissioners and their objective will be to help the victims of rape and sexual assault.
The anti-rape crisis cells aim to help in prompt registration of an FIR, medical examination, forensic analysis and other related issues.
Pakistan introduced the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Ordinance 2020 and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 last year in the wake of the outrage after a mother of two was raped by two men in September after her car broke down on a motorway near Lahore during night.
The legislation, among other measures, introduced the concept of chemical castration mainly in the form of rehabilitation and district level bodies to help the victims.
The notification to set up anti-rape crisis cells came just a week after two men involved in the motorway rape case were convicted and given death sentence along with life imprisonment and Rs 50,000 fine each.
Published 27 March 2021, 18:48 IST