KP Assembly speaker hints at legislation for public execution of child rapists, killers

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati suggested legislation for public execution of convicted child rapists and killers during a recent assembly session. The Child Protection Act would be named after a five-year-old victim, Ayat Noor, who was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed in Haripur last month.

Swati announced that the law would impose stringent punishment for violence against minors and expedite justice through special courts, including death by hanging for the most severe cases. Two such cases were reported in Haripur and Swat, while four suspected gang rapists were killed by their own associates in Peshawar.

The speaker's remarks followed a complaint from Swat Treasury Member Sharafat Ali, who stated that a child in his area was sexually assaulted before being murdered. Ali, along with opposition PPP lawmaker Ehsanullah Khan, raised concerns about incomplete information provided by the education department regarding the number of closed schools in the province. They noted that 30 percent of girls' schools in his Dera Ismail Khan constituency were closed, while data for boys' schools remained unavailable.

MPA Adnan Khan from the opposition JUI-F criticized the government's demolition of Government High School Bannu City-II, built in 1932 and owned by Hindu community members, despite having 3,000 students enrolled. Khan questioned the rationale behind the demolition, which occurred in 2022 due to the school's poor condition. Opposition ANP member Mohammad Nisar questioned the vacancy of 1,685 teacher posts in government schools of Bajaur tribal district, stating that Bajaur had a population of 1.8 million but only one higher secondary school for girls.

Another lawmaker, Arbab Usman, discussed wheat production and supply, revealing that while Punjab produced 20 million metric tonnes of wheat, KP consumed 124kg per person, with the surplus being sent to Sindh and KP.