In 1997, the Nawaz Sharif Government introduced the...

In 1997, the Nawaz Sharif Government introduced the death penalty for rapists charged with attacking children under 10 years, and said such cases should be tried in the special courts set up under the anti-terrorism laws. According to the NGO Sahil's study, of the 866 reported cases of child sexual abuse in 1998, 69 children were killed by their attackers after the assault. "We question the death penalty as a way to deter this crime. But more seriously we are concerned with the age of the child the Government has set. What about children of 11 years who are raped?" asked Sahil's Chaudhry who says Pakistan is lagging in the implementation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child.

In Pakistan if a child commits an offense below the age of 7 years it is not considered a crime. If it is done by a child between the ages of 7 and 12, it will not be an offense if the child has not attained sufficient maturity of understanding to judge the nature and consequences of his or her conduct on that occasion. All children over 12 are treated as adults for purposes of liability. Offenses involving the death sentence and life imprisonment committed by a child under 15 can only be tried by a Sessions Judge. The imposition of the death penalty on children and juveniles runs counter to Pakistan's obligations as a state party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Pakistan ratified the CRC in November 1990 with the general reservation that its provisions shall be interpreted in the light of the principles of Islamic laws and values. Furthermore, the hudud laws [Koranic punishment] of 1979, which include stoning to death for fornication, judicial amputation for theft and armed robbery, and flogging for consumption of intoxicants apply, without exception, to all parts of Pakistan and override all other legislation, including that relating to children. However, the definition of a child under the hudud laws distinguishes between the genders of the offenders: a male is defined as an adult at the age of 18 while a female is considered adult for the purposes of the law at the age of 16 or at attainment of puberty. The provinces of Sindh and the Punjab have laws concerning juvenile offenders. The Sindh Children Act 1955, enforced only in 1974, states that a youthful offender, a person under 16, cannot be sentenced to death or life imprisonment. The Punjab Youthful Offenders Ordinance 1983, not enforced anywhere in the province except in the district of Sahiwal, states that no offender under 15 at the time of the offense may be sentenced to death or life imprisonment. There is obviously a conflict between these specific laws for children and the general Pakistani Penal Code, and it would be left to the courts to sort out the differences at their discretion unless some superior court rules on this conflict.