The National Assembly (NA) on Tuesday passed the Anti-Rape Investigation and Trial Amendment Bill, 2025, it was reported.
Presented by Nausheen Iftikhar, the bill is an amendment to the Anti-Rape Act, 2021 and replaces the word, ‘special court’, with ‘juvenile court’.
The bill states that the police will be bound to get the child, who have been raped, medically examined within 24 hours of the incident, and in order to ensure secrecy and protection of the child, there will be a forensic examination.
It is also laid down in the bill that courts will not grant bail to suspects unless the circumstances are extraordinary, and even when bail will be granted, it will be after taking into account the safety and wellbeing of the victim.
The bill states that the purpose of the legislation is to get rid of delays in the provision of justice to rape victims.
The legislation calls for setting up juvenile courts in each and every city and district.
The bill notes that prolonged litigation and lack of evidence creates difficulties for the victims.
It stresses the need for deciding the cases of rape with children immediately and on priority basis.
Earlier as soon as the session, which was presided over by Deputy Speaker Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, started, quorum was pointed out.
The session had to be suspended for 15 minutes after it turned out that the quorum was incomplete.
However, later, the session resumed when the quorum was found complete after a fresh head count.
26m out-of-school children
In a calling attention notice, the attention of the House was drawn to those 26 million children in the country who did not go to schools.
Responding to the notice, State Minister Wajih Qamar said that the government was conducting surveys, providing meals to children and doing digital skills programmes so that children could be attracted to schools.
The National Assembly was also informed that a robust campaign has been launched in the Federal Capital Territory to bring out-of-school children to educational institutions.
Wajiha Qamar said the federal government is also working in coordination with provincial governments to address the issue. She said the government’s plan includes accelerated learning programme and progression towards technical education. She said middle-tech, matric-tech and inter-tech programs have been introduced to help improve student retention in educational institutions.
She said an education voucher programme has also been started to provide financial assistance to children from underprivileged families.
Saman Khan’s achievement praised
The National Assembly passed a resolution commending the outstanding achievement of distinguished Pakistani adventure athlete Samar Khan for successfully summiting Mount Elbrus and snowboarding down.
The resolution was moved by Sehar Kamran.
The resolution recognized Samar Khan’s continued contributions to adventure sports including, being the first woman in the world to cycle across the Biafo and Godwin Austen Glaciers and the first Pakistani to cycle on Mount Kilimanjaro, reflecting exceptional courage, resilience and determination.
The resolution congratulated Samar Khan for bringing international recognition to Pakistan and serving as an inspiration for young women across the country.
Another calling attention notice was presented to draw the attention of the House to the issues religious seminaries were facing in Balochistan.
Responding to the notice, the minister praised the role being played by seminaries in the dissemination of knowledge, and said that the government wanted these institutions to get registered so that children studying in them could also receive training in IT and digital technology.
The Polio Eradication and Rehabilitation Bill was also laid before the House. It was moved by Syed Waseem Hussain.
Later, the session was prorogued until 11:00 AM tomorrow.
