Abolition of the Punishment of Whipping Act, 1996

The Abolition of the Punishment of Whipping Act, 1996 (Act VII of 1996) ends whipping as a criminal punishment across Pakistan, with one narrow exception. Section 1 confirms it applies to the whole country and took effect immediately on enactment.

Section 3 is the operative provision: it abolishes the sentence of whipping under any law, rule, or regulation then in force, except where whipping is imposed as "hadd" — a punishment specifically prescribed by the Quran and Sunnah, as defined in Section 2. In other words, ordinary statutory whipping sentences (for example, under other penal or special laws) are struck out, but whipping ordered as a hadd punishment is untouched by this Act. A proviso to Section 3 also cancels out any whipping sentence that had already been handed down by a court or tribunal but not yet carried out at the time the Act came into force — such sentences are automatically remitted (cancelled).

Section 4 repeals the original Whipping Act, 1909, which had been the general law authorizing whipping as a punishment.

In effect, this short Act removes a corporal punishment that had existed in various laws since colonial times, while carving out religious/hadd punishments as a separate category left for other legislation to address.