LAHORE: The Depilex Smileagain Foundation (DSF) has urged the government to ban public sale of acid and other harmful substances which are mostly used in crimes against women.
To curb acid attacks and rehabilitate its victims in Punjab, the DSF held a consultation on policy recommendations with provincial legislators at a local hotel in Lahore the other day.
Addressing the consultation, DSF President Masarrat Misbah said that there were many unreported cases of acid attacks where victims usually succumbed to critical burn injuries, especially in rural areas. “Sometimes people try to hide information if the attacker is the husband or a family member of the victim,” she maintained.
She requested the provincial legislators to make suitable amendments to the law for regulating the sale and purchase of acid in light of the growing incidents of acid attacks against women in Punjab. She pointed out that there were many loopholes in the law which resulted in the increase in the number of acid attacks.
She also urged the government to make amendments to the law to regulate acid business by specifying who would issue licenses for acid sale and who could sell/purchase acid.
DSF Programme Manager Gul Hassan Abbas said that the provincial government enacted a law years ago to curb acid attacks, but the law had loopholes which were always exploited by culprits. He also said that sale licenses of acid were issued for possession and sale of poisonous substances, including acids, under the Poison Act (XII) of 1919. There was a need for an overarching legislative framework to deter acid attacks and provide relief to the victims, he added.
Furthermore, he said that the law did not provide any mechanism for regulating the sale and purchase of acid, while adding that the easy availability of acid was a prime reason of its use in attacks against women.
Pakistan Mulsim League-Nawaz member of provincial assembly Hina Pervaiz Butt said that with the support of other assembly members, she was trying to bring amendments in the law or bring a new independent law to regulate acid business. The consultation concluded with the aim to put a ban on open sale of acid and regulate the business to ensure that the general public did not had easy access to harmful substances.