Psychiatrists challenge FSC ruling on suicide attempts

The FSC had also struck down the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2022, to the extent that it omitted Se­­ction 325 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), and declared the rem­oval of the offence from the PPC repugnant to the injunctions of Islam. Filed under Article 203-F(2B) of the Constitution, the appeal, submitted by Advocate Barrister Muham­mad Mumtaz Ali on behalf of the PPS, requested the SC Shariat App­el­­late Bench to set aside the FSC judgement. The appeal argued that the FSC erred in holding that the omission of Section 325 of the PPC was repugnant to the injunctions of Islam despite the absence of any express provision in the Holy Quran, Sunnah, or authoritative Islamic jurisprudence mandating the criminalisation of suicide attempts or the imposition of temporal punishment. The FSC failed to appreciate that decriminalisation of suicide attempts does not amount to legalisation of suicide, which remains prohibited and a major sin under Islamic law, the petition contended. According to the appeal, the Qu­­ra­nic and Prophetic injunctions relied upon by the FSC establish the prohibition and culpability of suicide bef­ore Allah, but do not prescribe any specific worldly punishment for a suicide attempt, thereby recognising a distinction between religious culpability and the imposition of criminal sanctions by the legislature. The petition argued that criminalising suicide attempts neither adva­n­ces