Pakistan Prime Minister suggests chemical castration for rapists

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday he would like convicted rapists to be publicly executed or chemically castrated, reacting to a question on the rape of a woman on a highway last week that has caused uproar in the South Asian nation.

Last week, a mother of two driving along a major highway near Lahore was dragged out of her car and raped by two men at gunpoint - one of whom was arrested by police on Monday.

Khan said he believed the culprits should be hanged publicly, but added that officials had informed him that such an act could endanger a preferential trade status given to Pakistan by the European Union (EU).

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The EU's Generalised System of Preferences (GSP-plus) status, granted to Pakistan in 2014, is contingent upon observation of international conventions, such as human rights.

However, Khan said he was also looking into the option of chemical castration instead.

"The way there is first degree, second degree, third degree murder, this [rape] should be graded in the same way, and when there is first degree [rape], castrate them. Operate on them and make them unable to do this," Khan said in an interview on a Pakistan news channel.