A Senate committee unanimously approved amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on Wednesday, moving to criminalise necrophilia.

Necrophilia refers to having sexual attraction towards or committing sexual assault on a dead body.

A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior was convened by Senator Shahadat Awan at Parliament House, attended by Senators Irfan-ul-Haq Siddiqui and Samina Mumtaz Zehri, along with representatives from relevant departments.

The committee was scheduled to review various private members’ bills; however, due to the absence of the bill movers, these bills were deferred.

Amidst the deferral of most bills, the committee unanimously approved the “Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill, 2024,” introduced by Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri.

It acknowledges the “disturbing trend” of necrophilia in Pakistan, pointing out that other nations have also enacted laws to criminalise the act.

The bill aims to establish a clear legal stance against necrophilia by penalising it under relevant criminal laws. It is amending Section 377 (unnatural offences), which is punishable by life imprisonment.

According to the bill, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, “It shall come into force at once” and the definition of Section 377 will be expanded to include dead bodies. It currently only punishes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal”.

The move, per the bill, reflects a commitment to uphold the sanctity of the dead under Islamic teachings.

“To break the bone of a deceased person is similar to breaking the bone of a living person,” the bill further states, quoting the Holy Prophet (PBUH).

“The crime of necrophilia comes not only under the ambit of zina but also hudd crime, meaning a violation of divine law also,” the bill adds, stating that it must be penalised through the country’s laws.

The bill also states that the definition of unnatural offences does not explicitly include carnal intercourse with a dead body, effectively creating a loophole in criminal law that leaves cases of necrophilia often unpunished.

Initially, Samina Mumtaz suggested also adding children to the definition of Section 377, but the law and interior ministries recommended to only add “dead bodies”.

The bill, which has been unanimously passed by the Senate committee, will now be presented in Parliament for approval.

Last month, police arrested a 40-year-old man and booked him on suspicion of digging up the grave of a recently-buried woman and sexually abusing the corpse in a Korangi graveyard in Karachi.

In 2021, some unknown men dug out the corpse of a freshly-buried teenage girl and raped it in Maulvi Ashraf Chandio village near the coastal town of Ghulamullah.

In 2011, police arrested a man who confessed to defiling the corpses of 48 women in the Paposh Nagar graveyard over an eight-year period, as reported by The Express Tribune.

Correction: An earlier headline of the story suggested necrophilia had been criminalised; it has been amended to reflect that the parliament has yet to approve it.