“In order not to have the case registered, that’s where the element of bribery comes in. The stigma is such that any mention of mental illness within a family may deter potential marriage suitors and lead to the whole family being ostracised, says Khan. The police visit the survivor’s house, notifying them that a case must be registered because the law is suspected to have been broken. They cannot always do this, however, and so a medico-legal officer gets involved who is duty-bound to report any case to the police. Often doctors in hospital emergency departments will declare attempts accidental out of compassion, according to Sabri. These centres are for medical cases with criminal implications – for example, a traffic collision, assault or rape. There is opposition to getting it decriminalised because they would lose a significant revenue source.”Īnyone who attempts suicide is supposed to be referred to a designated medico-legal centre, says Dr Murad Moosa Khan, professor emeritus of psychiatry at Aga Khan University and former president of the International Association for Suicide Prevention. But Taha Sabri, founder of Taskeen, a mental health organisation in Pakistan, says: “We suspect suicide is a huge cash cow for the police. The bill faces some opposition, mainly from the interior ministry, responsible for the police, which claims the current law acts as a deterrent. If passed it will be presented to the president for assent and become law. Now, however, a bill to repeal section 325 and decriminalise suicide has been passed by the senate and is due to be debated in the National Assembly. The police, as well as hospital workers, mostly use the little-known law to extort money from survivors and their families. There is also no data on the number of criminal convictions, although it is suspected to be very few. However, there are no official statistics, and many doctors and academics say the criminalisation of suicide makes it difficult to get a clear picture of its prevalence and of wider incidences of mental health issues. Based on these numbers, there may be between 130,000 and 260,000 suicide attempts annually in the country. The WHO also estimates that, globally, for one death there are between 10 and 20 attempts. The World Health Organization estimated that in 2019 there were 19,331 suicides in Pakistan, with a rate of 8.9% per 100,000.
Suicide was decriminalised in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the 60s (having never been criminalised in Scotland) but remains a crime in 20 countries around the world.
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Section 325 of the Pakistan penal code makes an attempt punishable by a year’s imprisonment, a fine, or both. Legislation criminalising suicide has been on the statute books since the days of British rule. The police took the bribe and didn’t pursue the case. She said the police threatened her father, saying: “‘Either your daughter is going to jail or you are.’ My dad finally gave in and bribed them 10,000 rupees. When they arrived, they said they had been told by the hospital that suicide had been attempted by someone in the house and it wasn’t ‘allowed’ in Pakistan.” “What made it worse was the way the police dealt with it. “I already felt guilty and stupid for attempting suicide,” says Farooqui. It was when the police knocked on Aatifa Farooqui’s* door and threatened to send her to prison that she first realised suicide was illegal in Pakistan.įarooqui’s father pleaded with the officers to be lenient, explaining that his daughter was just 19 and had made a mistake, but quickly realised the police had other motives for dropping by.
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