The Pakistan Parliament passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2021 Thursday which amends the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898. While the bill initially contained a provision for chemical castration, it was reportedly dropped by way of a last-minute amendment in Parliament.

The act, among 33 others passed Thursday, is designed to achieve “efficacious justice to victims of rape” by providing strict punishments to offenders. It expands the definition of rape under section 375 of the penal code beyond penetration and makes the offence gender-neutral in terms of victims and perpetrators. The act also widens the definition of consent beyond the mere lack of physical resistance and introduces section 375A which deals with gang rape. While section 376B provided for chemical castration in “exceptional circumstances in respect of first offences” and repeat convictions of rape, an amendment moved by the Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Justice Maleeka Bokhari saw it removed from the bill.

Previously, human rights groups criticized forced chemical castration as regressive and inconsistent with the “absolute prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment” under international human rights law and the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act, 2020 approved by the Pakistan Senate in July. While the bill provided for castration for “any period of [the accused’s] life”, the possibility of permanent castration was criticized as irreversible. In an interview in 2020, Prime Minister Khan had said that chemical castration was an alternative to public hanging which would not be internationally acceptable.

Critics also state that harsher punishments do not fix a “flawed criminal justice system” with certainty of conviction as low as 3%, deficiencies in policing, investigation and victim protection and instead sidestep addressing the root causes of sexual violence.