PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan on Wednesday directed the federal government to make suitable amendments to the law for regulating the sale and purchase of acid in light of the growing incidence of acid attacks against women.

He issued the directives during the hearing into the bail petition of a person arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) for transporting chemicals, which it claimed could be used in preparation of narcotics and acid.

The chief justice observed that parliament had enacted law for curtailing acid throwing incidents, but there was a considerable vacuum in that law resulting in increase in such cases.

He directed the federal government to make amendments to the law to regulate acid business by specifying who will issue licenses for acid sale and who can sell and purchase acid and under what conditions.

The bench granted bail to petitioner Mohammad Saeed on the condition of furnishing two surety bonds valuing Rs200,000 each.

It observed that the chemicals recovered from the petitioner were not included in the schedule of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act (CNSA) and therefore, they could not be placed in the category of banned substances.

Hussain Ali, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client was arrested in Dara Adamkhel tribal area by ANF on the charges of transportation of certain chemicals.

He said the government had issued a licence to his client for transportation and sale of the said chemicals.

The lawyer said ANF had adopted the stand that the petitioner was transporting 1.54 metric ton of chemical, which was prohibited under international conventions.

He said when a chemical was not prohibited under CNSA, how it could be banned by ANF.

During the hearing, the chief justice observed that on several occasions, the high court had issued directives to the federal government for checking the growing use of acid in violence against women.

He added that while the federal government had enacted a law over a year ago claiming that it was aimed at checking the inhuman practice, the said law was having several loopholes.

The chief justice observed that the law did not provide any mechanism for regulating the sale and purchase of acid and that the easy availability of acid was a prime reason of its use in attacks against women.

In Dec 2011, the previous government had enacted the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2011 to punish those hurting people by using corrosive substances, including acid.

Through that law, amendments were made to the Pakistan Penal Code.

Now, the law provides for the maximum sentence of life imprisonment and the minimum sentence of up to 14 years imprisonment with fine of Rs1 million for the offence of hurting a person with corrosive substances, including acid.

It also added the words ‘disfigure’ and ‘deface’ in Section 332 of PPC, dealing with different kinds of injury, and also adds an explanation to the said section, which states ‘disfigure means disfigurement of face or disfigurement or dismemberment of any organ or any part of the organ of the human body which impairs or injures or corrodes or deforms the symmetry or appearance of a person.’

Through that amendment, Section 336B was added to PPC, which says: “Whoever causes hurt by corrosive substance shall be punished with imprisonment for life or imprisonment of either description which shall not be less than fourteen years and a minimum fine of one million rupees.”