Pakistan: Rape victims will now need to pay Rs 25,000 for medical exam

Furthermore, the charges for keeping dead bodies in the cold storage will be Rs1500 per 24 hours. For DNA testing Rs18,000 fixed charges have been suggested, reports The Express Tribune.

The decision was taken during a meeting of the Management Committee held on Feb 14 in which 17 new charges were approved.

“We provide forensic facilities to the law enforcement agencies, courts and other departments which include autopsy, medico-legal examination, age estimation, toxicology and DNA analysis,” an official of the department told The Express Tribune, adding that the decision to introduce 17 new charges was taken to meet the operational expenditures of the Forensic Department.

“For the district Peshawar autopsy cases the department will charge Rs5,000 per case while for the cases referred from other districts the charges will be Rs25,000 per postmortem,” he said, adding that for kinship and paternity test Rs20,000 fee has been proposed.

“For drug abuse analysis Rs3,000 charges have to be paid. Urine test and alcohol analysis will cost Rs2,000. Test for poison detection to cost Rs4,000 while freezer charges for dead bodies will be Rs1,500 per 24 hours,” he informed this correspondent.

Activists have not welcomed the decision.

“When you go to a police station they often ask you to pay for the diesel for police mobiles. Now they will ask the general public to pay the charges of autopsy and even medical examination of rape victims. So the decision is not a welcome one,” said a rights activist Tamur Kamal while talking to The Express Tribune.