Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday, September 14, said that the worst sex crimes should be punishable by chemical castration.

This comes after hundreds of women took to the streets across the country after a woman was brutally raped in front of her two children when her car ran out of fuel near the eastern city of Lahore.

The case sparked nationwide outrage after a police official blamed the survivor for driving around at night without a male companion. The official later apologised.

Khan said that the worst sex crimes should be punishable by public hangings. He added that this could impact trading deals with partners that oppose the death penalty, such as the European Union, India Today reported.

‘What I think is that there should be chemical castration, I have read it is happening in many countries,’ Khan said in an interview with Pakistani news station Channel 92.

‘The way murder is graded: First-, second- and third-degree. This should also be graded, and for first-degree (sex crimes) there should be castration.’

Chemical castration is a process where drugs are used to reduce a person’s libido.

The police have recently arrested Shafqat Ali, one of the two suspects involved in the gang-rape case. Search is underway to nab the other accused.

‘His DNA has matched, and he has confessed to the crime,’ Punjab province Chief Minister Usman Buzdar said on Twitter.

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