Pakistan's Special Representative of the Prime Minister on Religious Harmony, Maulana Tahir Ashrafi, has criticised advertisers for hiring women to represent their brands though there are "so many good looking men in the country." Geo TV quoted Ashrafi as saying on Sunday that women should not be "unnecessarily featured in advertisements".

Speaking on the increasing sexual crimes in Pakistan, he said the accused must be given harsh punishments.

"The ulema have a role to play in eradicating obscenity, terrorism, and extremism from the country," Ashrafi added.

Earlier, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) had termed chemical castration punishment for the rape convict as un-Islamic and also urged the government to suggest more effective punishments in this regard, ARY News reported.

In 2020, Pakistan President Arif Alvi had passed anti-rape ordinance 2020 to give strict punishments to sex offenders including chemical castration.

Last year in November, Prime Minister Imran Khan had approved, in principle, a law for the chemical castration of rapists.

According to Geo TV, the decision was made during a federal cabinet meeting wherein the law ministry presented a draft of the anti-rape ordinance. The draft included increasing women’s role in policing, fast-tracking rape cases and witness protection.