Last edited: November 24, 2007


Pakistan

  • Statute: Section 377
  • Penalty: Death by stoning

Statute

From International Lesbian and Gay Association

Section 377 Penal Code criminalizes "carnal knowledge of any man against the order of nature", with a penalty of 2 years up to life imprisonment and a possible corporal punishment of a 100 lashes. (PB)

Islamic law was re-introduced in 1990. "Pakistani civil law punishes those who have gay sex with two years to life in prison, while Islamic law, which also can be enforced legally, calls for up to 100 lashes or death by stoning." (RW/886)

[While it seems unlikely that Section 377 would apply to lesbians, it seems likely that Islamic law would]

"Arrests and trials do not occur … As elsewhere with unenforced sodomy prescriptions, the existence of the law is a threat - a threat conducive to blackmail. While the law is largely irrelevant to life in Pakistan, those acting in its name are not…..Police recurrently take money and/or sex from those they know to be involved in same-sex sex (commercial or not). (Chapter on Pakistan by Stephen O Murray and Badruddin Khan in "Sociolegal Control of Homosexuality".)

"The World Organization Against Torture (WOAT) is targeting Pakistan over the recent whipping of two males allegedly caught having sex in a public lavatory. Mohammad Zaman, 38, a mosque worker, and Fahimullah, a 14-year-old student, were lashed publicly May 17 in Bara Bazar in Pakistan's western Khyber Agency, an area administered by local Afridi tribespeople.

Zaman received 75 blows and the boy got 32. They allegedly confessed to Maulana Abdul Hadi, head of Tanzeem Ittehad-e-Ulema-e-Qabail (TIUQ), the local Islamic ruling party, and to Afridi elders that they committed sodomy. Zaman allegedly paid Fahimullah 100 rupees ($3) to have sex with him. The Pakistan government launched a paramilitary operation in August 1995 against the TIUQ following their establishment of a paramilitary force and an independent judicial system. TIUQ regained prominence earlier this year after the government extended voting rights to the tribespeople." (RW/164/18.6.1997)

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