Islamabad:
The Senate approved on Friday the bill of criminal laws (amendment), 2025, eliminating the death penalty for the public assault of women, including nudity, and for hosting a kidnapper, and replacing it with a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
The Chamber, which met with Vice President Syedal Khan Nasir in the President, also approved two other bills that seek amendments to the Extradition Law, 1972, and the Citizenship Law of Pakistan, 1951.
The three bills were presented by the Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry.
The Project of Criminal Law (amendment), 2025, proposes changes in sections 354-A and 402-C of the Pakistan Criminal Code (PPC). However, opposition senators Ali Zafar and Samina Mumtaz Zehri opposed the bill.
In response, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar told the Chamber that the severity of the punishment did not necessarily deter crime. “Giving the death penalty does not reduce crimes,” he said. “We have a very high crime rate, so we have to fix our system,” he added.
He referred to an incident during the regime of the former military ruler Gen Ziaul Haq, in which the village elders had torn off a woman’s clothes. “This law was approved by the administrator of the martial law,” he recalled, added that the life imprisonment remained a very serious punishment.
“I request that we finish the terrible gift of the era of martial law,” said the Minister of Right to the Chamber. He suggested that, apart from the four death punishments given in Sharia under the laws of Hudood, there should be no other capital punishment.
With respect to the extradition bill (amendment), 2025, Tarar said that the extradition law was bilateral. In Pakistan, the extradition process involves five stages, beginning with the approval of the cabinet. “And after an investigation, the federal government finally approves extradition,” he said.
He explained that the bill abolished the requirement of cabinet approval in the initial stage. “The cases are processed by virtue of the 1972 extradition law, and must be sent to the federal cabinet twice, which takes considerable time due to the busy agenda of the cabinet business,” he said.
The Declaration of Objectives of the Citizenship Law (amendment) of Pakistan stressed that a large number of Pakistani abroad were forced to renounce their citizenship to acquire the nationality of a foreign country for residence or legal stay.
However, when these countries later participated in arrangements of dual nationality with Pakistan, there was no provision in the Citizenship Law that allowed them to resume Pakistani citizenship. The amendment now provides legal coverage to allow the diaspora to claim its citizenship.
Meanwhile, the Federal Education Minister and Professional Training Wajiha Qamar presented the bill of the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (amendment), 2025, as reported by the corresponding Permanent Committee.
The declaration of objectives of the bill said that the law had been amended to provide a comprehensive framework for the Board to organize, regulate, drive and supervise intermediate and secondary education in line with international best practices.
The proposed amendments aim to facilitate rapid and flexible decision making while allowing the Board to establish international collaborations. The composition of the Board has also been reviewed to adopt a more inclusive structure.
Speaking about the bill, Tarar said that measures had been taken to reduce the workload of the federal government, with several delegated responsibilities of the federal cabinet. He added that the provincial representation had also been guaranteed in the restructured Board.
During the process, Senator Humayun Mohmand informed the Chamber that private recruitment agencies had sent Pakistani to Serbia, where they were supposedly forced to prostitution. He demanded that the matter be referred to the relevant committee.
The Minister of State for the lawyer of the law, Aqeel Malik, replied by stating that the Pakistani mission had no role in sending girls to Serbia. He revealed that 38 people from Pakistan had gone there for works in fruits and vegetables. Subsequently, the president referred to the relevant committee.
Separately, Senator Abdul Shakoor caught the house’s attention to “looting of private medical schools.”
Barrimer Malik also presented the National Ordinance of the Agriculture and Food Security Authority, 2025. The session was postponed later until Monday.
