Sexual assaults will now be punishable by up to seven years in
prison. Child porn will also be punishable by seven years in prison and
a fine of Rs 700,000
ISLAMABAD: Legislators in the upper house of the
parliament reacted strongly on Friday when a senator pointed out that a
textbook titled Sociology of Pakistan described the Baloch as an
uncivilised nation who would always quarrel with each other and loot the
convoys.
“I don’t know what sort of message has been given to the young
generation of Pakistan,” said Balochistan Senator Mir Kabeer Ahmed
Muhammad Shahi of the National Party (NP).
It is written in the book that the Baloch did not allow the women to
go to school or work. Shahi said that uneducated authors of the book
should first study the Baloch history and then write a book. He said
that insulting a nation in such a way was very dangerous and asked the
house to take appropriate action against publishers Abdul Hamid Taga and
Abdul Aziz Taga. He informed the house that the book was being taught
to the students of intermediate part-II enrolled with different boards
of secondary education in Punjab.
The senators were of the view that it was a serious issue and it
should not have gone unnoticed. The issue was described as a conspiracy
against Pakistan and strict action was sought against the publishers and
those who approved the book for the syllabus.
Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani said that changes were made in the
textbooks during late General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime and there were
hundreds of biased topics in the textbooks being taught to the young
generation. He said there was another book, which highlighted 12 merits
of dictatorship and eight merits of democracy and tried to establish
that a military takeover was inevitable, otherwise the country would
have collapsed. He assured the house that the matter would be brought
into the notice of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
Earlier, the Senate passed a bill, criminalising for the first time
sexual assault on minors, child pornography and trafficking. The
amendment to the penal code, which would come into effect after its
ratification by the president, raises the age of criminal responsibility
from seven to 10 years. Under the revised legislation, a sexual assault
will be punishable by up to seven years in prison. Previously, only
rape was criminalised.
Likewise, child pornography, which was previously not mentioned in
the law, will be punishable by seven years in prison and a fine of Rs
700,000. Previously, traffickers were liable to punishment only if they
would traffic children abroad. The legislation would help protect the
children against any kind of mental and physical abuse.
Voices in support of the missing persons echoed once again in the
Senate on Friday. Senator Farhatullah Babar pointed out that the Senate
sent a report on rights violations to the government a couple of months
ago, but the government did not respond. Rabbani said that he would send
the government a reminder to respond to the Senate report.
Babar drew the Senate’s attention to the reports that a disillusioned
Islamic State defector reportedly passed a stolen computer disc
containing documents identifying more than 20,000 operatives in over 50
countries to a British journalist together with a treasure of rare
information about the countries they belonged to, their expertise in
carrying out various militant operations and a list of people who had
volunteered to act as suicide bombers to further the Islamic State
cause. He called for an investigation into this treasure house of
information to find out if there are any Islamic State supporters and
operators in Pakistan.
Separately, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab
Ahmad told the Senate on Friday that the government wanted to have two
airlines to promote competition and provide better travel facilities to
people. He said that Pakistan Airways had been registered with the
Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, but its main features
were still being worked out.
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