ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Tuesday passed the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2025, aimed at controlling obscenity and vulgarity in society through amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), 1860.
The legislation envisages amendments to Sections 292, 293 and 294 of the PPC 1860, which directly relate to individuals involved in the advertisement or publicity of obscene material. Through an amendment to Section 292 of the PPC 1860, the punishment of three months’ imprisonment has been enhanced to two years for any person who sells, lets to hire, distributes, publicly exhibits, or in any other manner circulates, or for the purpose of sale, hire, distribution, public exhibition or circulation, makes, produces or possesses any obscene material for display or advertisement. According to the amendment to Section 293 of the PPC, imprisonment has been increased from six months to two years, along with a fine of Rs100,000, for any person who sells, lets to hire, distributes, exhibits or circulates any obscene object to a person under the age of 20 years or offers or attempts to do so.
Under the amendment to Section 294 of the PPC, any person committing an obscene act in a public place shall be punished with imprisonment of one year or a fine of Rs100,000, or both, instead of the existing punishment of three months’ imprisonment.
The House also passed the Islamabad Capital Territory (Prohibition of Plastic Book Covers) Bill, 2026, which seeks to prohibit the sale of books in plastic covers. The bill states that no seller shall sell, offer for sale, or otherwise distribute any book within the territory that is encased, wrapped or covered in a plastic cover meant solely for carrying purposes.
According to the bill, a “book” means any printed literary work consisting of more than two pages, bound either permanently or temporarily, regardless of size, meant for educational, professional, recreational or any other purpose, and offered for sale. Violators will face a fine of Rs50,000 for the first violation and Rs100,000 for repeated violations. The legislation states that the measure is a critical step towards addressing the growing burden of plastic waste, particularly single-use plastics, which pose a serious and escalating threat to Pakistan’s environment, public health and waste management infrastructure.
Ms Nosheen Iftikhar introduced the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) (Amendment) Bill, 2025, seeking amendments to the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act, 2021. The bill seeks to address existing challenges by introducing a specialised framework for the swift and effective handling of child abuse cases. It aims to establish child courts in every district, city or jurisdiction exclusively tasked with hearing cases involving child abuse, including physical, sexual and emotional abuse, as well as neglect.
