April 24, 2025
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
The Punjab Government has finally approved and passed the Punjab Acid Control Bill, now an Act, a step which has been welcomed across the board.
“With the passing of the Acid Control Bill 2025 (Bill No. 15 of 2025), by the Punjab Assembly, officially, we are seeing a significant step forward in the fight against acid-related violence in the province,” said Gul Hassan Abbas, policy analyst and executive director of the Initiatives for Sustainable Development (ISD) while speaking to Voicepk.
Abbas also commended the efforts of Hina Parvez Butt, the member of Punjab Assembly who had pushed for the draft and subsequently the bill to be introduced and passed at all stages.
Hina Parvez Butt also spoke to Voicepk regarding the journey of the Bill.
“I faced no challenges, and especially now, since the CM Maryam Nawaz has vowed that any sort of violence against women would be her ‘red line’,” said Hina Butt. “I was given a lot of facilitation by the Law Department, and we together presented a very solid bill in the assembly. There will be no issues regarding implementation of this law. We will start by making test cases,” she said.
Lawyer, and executive director of AGHS, Nida Aly, says that the initial acid law used to criminalize acid violence. There could be up to 14 years of punishment with regard to the use of corrosive substances (in a violent act).
“There was also a Poison Act of 1919, and that was what initially formed the base of substance control or management,” she said. “This new act must be fully endorsed, it is an important development, because it also talks about management of substance abuse, about who will license it, how it will be stored, and its negligence. It is integral to regulate these things,” she said. However she had reservations about certain aspects of the Act.
“This new Act has removed the punishments, and compensations. Compensation was a very important aspect, because acid violence stems from hate. Still the Act should be fully endorsed,” she said.
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Easy access
The widespread availability of highly corrosive substances in the market presents a serious concern, especially given the absence of legal oversight regarding their sale and distribution. These substances are also inexpensive due to their common use in industrial processes and household cleaning. Consequently, purchasing them rarely raises suspicion or prompts inquiry.
Concentrated corrosive substances are readily obtainable throughout the country. The buying and selling of these substances lack regulation, allowing individuals to acquire any quantity without needing identification or documentation. This ease of access contributes to the potential for violent acts involving these materials.
For instance, a small container of hydrochloric acid can cost approximately ten to fourteen rupees per kilogram. While prices vary based on strength, commonly dangerous acids such as nitric, sulfuric, or hydrochloric acid can generally be purchased for around 50 to 100 rupees.
“For a small amount of money, someone’s life can be irrevocably altered,” said Abbas.
Abbas points out that sulphuric acid (H2SO4), an ingredient openly used in local bathroom cleaners here, is not used for this purpose elsewhere globally. He cites Indian research indicating that 90 percent of skin cancer cases are linked to exposure to this substance, emphasizing the urgent need for strict regulation.
Due to the prolonged delay of the relevant Bill within the Law Ministry, the illegal sale and purchase of acid technically remain unrestricted.
Data from Punjab Police reveals a significantly high incidence of acid attacks, with figures from 2019 documenting at least 62 such incidents within Punjab alone.
Investigations and court proceedings related to these cases suggest that the ready availability of acid is a primary contributing factor to acid attacks in Punjab. Abbas argues for the necessity of controlling the sale and purchase of acid and limiting its use for purposes other than industrial applications. He suggests that all transactions involving acid, including at the retail level, should be fully documented to prevent its accessibility for violent acts.
“Uptil now, Punjab has lacked any legislation to regulate this,” he says.
Acid violence has been criminalized in the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) through Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act, 2011. Under this Act, two new sections, 336 A and 336 B have been added to the Penal Code to deal exclusively with the hurt caused by corrosive substances.
Meanwhile, the Acid and Burn Crime Act, 2018, was an effort made to enact a more comprehensive law but this was limited to the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and it dealt with defining, criminalizing, enforcing and rehabilitating aspects of the crime. However, as most laws go, this too was passed by the National Assembly but not by the Senate in time. Before anything, the Government changed and the new regime did not reintroduce to the new National Assembly.
However, it must be noted that both these laws did not address the issue of easy availability of acid in the market.
“At present, the sale of acid is dealt with the British drafted Poisons Ac, 1919,” says Abbas. “It deals with import, possession and sale of poisons as a whole. It extends to the whole of Pakistan and is a federal act, but the law is weak.”
Abbas points out several lacunae in this law, highlighting that the seriousness of acid violence is not reflected in the Act.
“First of all the Punjab government have not even made the Rules for this law,” he says. “Secondly, it calls for regulating the possession of poisons for any specific area, but not generally for the whole province. Importantly it talks about death by poison only, and not by acids. Unfortunately, even after the person is found guilty, the maximum penalty for misusing the possession of poison is merely a one-year imprisonment term and a fine of 1000 Rupees. Lastly, the Act is silent about regulations on the purchase of acids by people for non-industrial purposes. This gap in law warrants a new law to regulate this sector,” he says.
A survivor speaks out
In 2019, during Ramazan, Chahat, a transgender and a resident of Rahim Yar Khan, was having dinner at her home in Rehmat Colony, when a friend informed her that someone was calling for her outside.
“It was near the end of my fast,” she recalled. “I was surprised anyone would call at that hour, during mealtime. I left my food and went to see who it was. It was dark, and the person stood with their back to the light, making it difficult to see them clearly. I called out to ask what they wanted, and the next moment, I felt an intense burning sensation, like being burnt with fire.”
Although Chahat survived the attack, she lost her eyes completely.
Later, during interrogation, she found out that a man she used to have relations with had reportedly confessed to the violent act, saying he did it because he disapproved of her meeting anybody else.
She describes the experience of surviving an acid attack as a ‘living death’, a suffering worse than dying.
In Pakistan, reasons behind acid attacks are varied. For both women and transgender individuals, the motivations are often similar. Women may be attacked for refusing marriage proposals, while transgender women face attacks for rejecting romantic advances. There are also attacks over allegations of ‘cheating’ or ‘illicit relations’. This kind of honour based violence carried out through acid, still continues in this day and age. A huge part of the reason is the access to acid in the market.
The easy and low-cost availability of acid, traditional societal views on gender, media portrayals, concepts of shame or loss of honour, and desires for revenge or retribution all contribute to why acid is used in attacks against women and transgender people in Pakistan.
But now there is new hope among those who have worked for the Act to be approved by the Assembly and come into being. They hope that with an aggressive crackdown on those who are negligent, or those working illegally, will change things to a large extent.