PESHAWAR, Nov 18: By giving legal status to a statement recorded by a medical officer of a burn victim, the federal government has fulfilled a longstanding demand of different women rights organizations.

Now, a statement recorded by a medical officer before death of a burn victim could be accepted in evidence as dying declaration.

Through an amendment in the Criminal Procedure Code, 1898, by the President of Pakistan on Saturday, a new section, 174A has been inserted in the code.

It has now been made binding on the medical officer on duty or officer in charge of a police station that they shall immediately give intimation thereof to nearest magistrate when a person grievously injured by burns through fire, kerosene oil, acid chemical or any other way is brought to a medical officer or incident is reported to the officer in charge of a station.

Under the amendment it is the duty of a medical officer that he should forthwith record the statement of the injured person on arrival so as to ascertain the circumstances and cause of the burn injuries. The statement of the person shall also be recorded by the magistrate in case the injured person is still in a position to make the statement.

A women’s rights activist said that it was after growing incidents of killing of females by setting them on fire that the women’s  rights organizations started  demanding  successive government to plug loopholes in laws. She added that in most of the burn related cases after the deaths of females the family members declared it as suicides or accidents and the culprits could not be punished. “Now by declaring statements of burn victims to a medical officer as an evidence, it will help in conviction of an accused even after the death of a victim.”

In  April last year at an international human  rights convention in Islamabad the government announced that from then onward all burn related cases should be forthwith reported to the concerned deputy commissioners. However, the government failed to implement that policy.

A local lawyer informed although the present amendment to the CrPC was a good step, but it would be very difficult to implement. He suggested that the government should forthwith issue specific directives to all the major hospitals, public as well as private, asking them to report each and every case of burn; whether it is an accident or a case of domestic violence.