Pakistan abolishes colonial-era regulation that punishes tried suicide

Pakistan’s parliament on Friday repealed Section 325 of the Pakistan Penal Code, a colonial-era legal regulation penalising suicide makes an attempt.

Islamabad,UPDATED: Dec 24, 2022 04:20 IST

According to the target of the modification, “the issue of suicide ought to be dealt with as a disease and should be treated as one”.

By Press Trust of India: Pakistan on Friday adopted an modification to the colonial-era legal legal guidelines to abolish the punishment for tried suicide.

Pakistan’s parliament had repealed Section 325 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 about penalising suicide makes an attempt. Under the part, suicide or tried suicide was an offence punishable by one yr of imprisonment, superb or each.

It states: “Whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission of such offence, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.” The enacted regulation was accomplished when President Dr Arif Alvi endorsed the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill 2022, abolishing the punishment for tried suicide, in keeping with the announcement issued by the President’s House.

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Earlier, the modification within the regulation was launched by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and it was handed by the Senate in May this yr.

According to the target of the modification, “the issue of suicide ought to be dealt with as a disease and should be treated as one”.

There is lack of genuine knowledge on the precise variety of folks committing suicide every year, however in keeping with an previous report of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the estimated fee of suicide in Pakistan in 2019 was 8.9 per 100,000 folks.

In different phrases, round 19,331 folks killed themselves in 2019.

It is believed that the precise quantity needs to be a lot larger as a number of instances aren’t reported to keep away from investigations by police.

Decriminalisation could assist to get the true image of the annual suicides within the nation.

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Published On:

Dec 24, 2022