ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Tuesday passed the ‘The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2017’ which targets at increasing punishment for serious offences like sexual abuse of minors and child pornography. The bill was moved by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s MNA Mussarat Ahmad Zeb.
The ‘statement of objects and reasons’ in the bill cite the recent unfortunate occurrences of sexual abuse of children across the country that made it imperative to have tougher punishments for the those convicted of these heinous crimes.
Under the proposed law, the imprisonment for offences related to sexual assault has been proposed to be ‘not less than 14 years which may extend up to 20 years’ and a fine, not less than one million rupees.