Pakistan’s president has approved a much-awaited new law requiring the establishment of special courts to speedily conclude trials of people charged with raping women or children, a move hailed by rights activists. The law, which must be approved by parliament to remain in effect, requires courts to conclude the trials of alleged rapists and issue verdicts within four months. It also prohibits the disclosure of the identity of rape victims and will create a national sex offenders register. The move follows outrage over the gang rape of a woman in front of her children in September after her car broke down. Before the new law, rape cases could drag on for years, mainly because of faulty investigations and flawed laws, making it difficult for victims to come forward to share their ordeal. The statement released by President Arif Alvi’s office on Tuesday provided few additional details. Pakistani English-language newspaper the Dawn reported that under the new law any official who showed negligence in investigating rape cases could face a three-year prison sentence. The new law comes months after the prime minister, Imran Khan, promised to remove deficiencies in existing laws to expedite justice for rape victims. Khan and his cabinet approved the legislation last month, and Alvi signed it into law on Tuesday, bringing it into force. The government now has 120 days to take the measure to parliament and have it permanently passed into law. Khan recently also hinted at public executions or surgical castration of convicted rapists after two assailants gang raped a woman in front of her children on a deserted highway near the eastern city of Lahore in September. The attack shocked Pakistan, with anger further fuelled by police, who appeared to blame the victim for travelling alone. The new law will lapse if parliament does not approve it within 120 days. Nearly 1,000 women are killed in Pakistan each year in so-called “honour killings” for allegedly violating conservative norms on love and marriage.