Evolving Discourse on Suicide Cases in Pakistan

Sabir Khan

Peshawar: Whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission of such offense shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with a fine, or with both,” reads Section 325 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

This penal code was originally legislated by the British government in 1860 in India. The penal code has criminalized suicide.

However, the British government in its own country declared it an illness and decriminalized suicide back in 1961. Unfortunately, Pakistan has copied the same penal code, and suicide is still a crime in Pakistan.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared it an illness. It has specialized September 10 as Suicide Prevention Day since 2003. Medical science believes that it is unjust to penalize the survivor of suicide. It is the same as penalizing the survivor of a heart attack.

To ask a survivor of suicide why he tried to end his life is just like to ask a survivor of a heart attack why his heart failed to pump properly. In one case, the brain stops working properly, and in the other, the heart stops.

According to WHO statistics, 130,000 to 270,000 people attempt suicide each year in Pakistan. 20,000 people die every year due to suicide.

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About 60 percent are teenagers. The ratio increases from 10 percent to 20 percent each year. These sad statistics are not motivating the parliament of Pakistan to repeal Section 325 of the Pakistan Penal Code. The question is: why is decriminalization necessary?

In Pakistan, suicide is attributed to mental health issues due to poverty, lower income, a lack of job opportunities, exam stress, and forced marriages. Due to the legal implications, most of the survivors do not consult a doctor. They go untreated. The legal implications have labeled it an offense, not an illness. The victims consider themselves criminals, not mentally ill people. They hide their illness, which leads them to end their lives.

In recent years, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, and India have decriminalized suicide. They declared it a mental illness. WHO has observed a considerable decline in suicides in many countries in subsequent years since 2014.

When it is declared an illness, it is cured by mental and public health professionals, educational institutions, legal professionals, and civil society. WHO is committed to decriminalizing suicide through its Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan (2021-2030). It is also one of the sustainable development goals to which Pakistan has committed by 2030. However, the legislation about it is in cold storage.

In 2018, PPP Senator Karim Khwaja tabled a bill to decriminalize suicide. It was passed in the Senate and approved by the Council of Islamic Ideology of Pakistan. But unfortunately, it lapsed because the parliamentary tenure had ended before the bill reached the National Assembly of Pakistan. Since 2018, this illness has affected 8000 lives, or 20,000 each year.

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It is just because of the unawareness, non-seriousness, and lack of capability and interest of the parliamentarians. Though, once again, PPP Senator Shahadat Awan has tabled a bill in the Senate to decriminalize suicide in December 2021. “They deserve medical treatment, not punishment,” he stated. There was severe division over the bill in the Senate.

Senators of JUI strongly opposed it; PTI senators sought the opinion of the Council of Islamic Ideology, while the senators of PPP and PML-N approved it.

The parliamentarians of Pakistan need to decriminalize it urgently to treat and save more lives. The government should establish an authority at the district level with rescue, medical, and investigation boards.

On a district level, Rescue 1122 should be tasked with rescuing them. The investigation board should thoroughly investigate each case. The medical board should treat the survivors in light of the reasons investigated. The authority will submit a quarterly report to the provincial and central governments. It will help the provincial and central governments legislate and answer the reasons behind the suicides in a clear way.

Sabir Khan serves as a lecturer in political science at GPGC Bannu and can be contacted through: Sabirwaxir007@gmail.com. 

The article is the writer’s opinion, it may or may not adhere to the organization’s editorial policy.