The story · written by gpt-6,
Pakistan abolished whipping as a non-hadd legal punishment in April 1996, removing the lash sentences that the prohibition order had prescribed for cannabis possession and consumption.[1][2] The law also remitted non-hadd whipping sentences already imposed but still unexecuted.[1] Prison terms and the underlying cannabis offences remained.[1][2]
Cannabis had been punishable by lashes
The 1979 prohibition order expressly listed herbal cannabis, resin, hashish and preparations made from them.[2] It allowed up to thirty lashes as an alternative to two years in prison for possession, with a fine also possible.[2] Its consumption rules likewise allowed whipping as a non-hadd punishment.[2]
Hadd was a separate category of punishment prescribed by the Quran or Sunnah.[1][2] The order’s eighty-lash hadd rule concerned an adult Muslim drinking alcoholic liquor by mouth; its definition of liquor excluded solid intoxicants, including when liquefied.[2] That distinction determined which lash sentences the new law abolished.[1][2]
A reported hashish flogging showed the punishment in use
The UN torture rapporteur recorded a report that two Irishmen convicted of smuggling hashish received five lashes in Peshawar Central Jail on 8 October 1995.[3] His account attributed the incident to Amnesty International’s citation of Pakistani media.[3] It supplied a concrete example of cannabis punishment shortly before the repeal.[3]
The same report traced the government’s abolition proposal to November 1995 and linked it to objections that whipping violated human dignity.[3]
Unexecuted sentences were remitted
The President assented to the Abolition of the Punishment of Whipping Act on 3 April 1996.[1] The Act said it came into force at once; its Gazette publication followed on 15 April.[1]
Section 3 abolished whipping provided under any existing law, rule or regulation, except where it was prescribed as hadd.[1] The accompanying remission rule reached sentences already awarded by a court or tribunal when the lashes had not yet been carried out.[1] Parliament also repealed the Whipping Act of 1909.[1]
Cannabis offences continued under prison-based laws
The repeal removed a form of punishment while leaving the prohibition order’s possession and consumption offences in place.[1][2] The 1997 narcotics law then set quantity-based penalties for unauthorised possession and supply, including fines, prison and possible death for the largest band.[4]
It also required provincial registration of people dependent on drugs and provided for treatment centres.[4] Ending non-hadd whipping was one stage within Pakistan’s longer cannabis-law history.[1][4]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Pakistan here.
References
- Abolition of the Punishment of Whipping Act 1996, original GazetteParliament of Pakistan · In Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary, 15 April 1996, pp. 355–356 · 1996 · Act VII of 1996; assent 3 April; sections 1–4, especially immediate commencement and remission of unexecuted whipping sentencesarchived
- Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order 1979, government reprint with amendment notesGovernment of Pakistan · 1979 · Articles 1–2, 4–12 and 17; Schedule items 1–3 and 6; later amendments to articles 3 and 4 identified in footnotesarchived
- Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture: visit to PakistanNigel S. Rodley · In UN Commission on Human Rights, E/CN.4/1997/7/Add.2, 15 October 1996 · 1996 · Paragraphs 63–69, especially the reported October 1995 hashish flogging and November 1995 abolition proposal
- Control of Narcotic Substances Act 1997, historical text reproduced by UNODC SHERLOCGovernment of Pakistan · 1997 · Sections 2, 4–9, 52–53 and 73–78; header uses Gazette date, 11 July 1997archived
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.