November 7, 2025
By Noor Fatima
LAHORE
“He said if I told anyone, he would kill me,” says 12 year old Laiba, her voice trembling as tears flowed from her eyes. She hid in her grandmother’s lap and was crying. Laiba lives in a village of Renala Khurd, in District Okara. For years, the child suffered in silence while her father sexually abused her, later even inviting a neighbour to accompany him. Her 10-year-old brother witnessed the abuse and her ordeal, and tried to raise the alarm, but when they approached their maternal uncles with the situation, the uncles refused to file an FIR – dismissing it as a “family matter.”
However one good thing emerged from speaking out. Once the secret was out, Laiba’s father, Muhammad Shakeel, fled the village, and abandoned his four children behind.
Very slowly across small towns and villages in parts of Punjab, there are girls who want to raise their voice, fighting for justice. They have suffered from unthinkable betrayal by their own families, and endured abuse inside their own homes. But long before justice arrives, long before they even raise their voices, they are smothered under family pressure, threats, and a familiar demand to cow down into silence, only for the sake of ‘family honour’ and ‘to let domestic matters stay private.’
Rise in reporting of child abuse
The numbers paint a grim picture. According to NGO Sahil, In just the first six months of 2025, around 1,956 cases of child abuse were reported in Pakistan — a 20 per cent rise compared to the same period in 2024.
Punjab accounted for 72% of these cases, with 59% in urban areas and 41% in rural communities. Among them, 950 cases involved sexual abuse. Experts warn that these figures reflect only reported incidents; many more remain hidden and unreported.
Laiba’s mother, who had left home years ago to work in Saudi Arabia, was far away from her children and so unaware of what was happening. In her mother’s absence, Laiba was helpless and isolated.
Addressing this kind of situation, Dr Rabbia psychologist at Children’s Hospital Lahore says that children can be deeply harmed forever.
“It is crucial to create safe spaces for children where they can express themselves without fear of judgment,” says Dr. Rabia. “They need to know that their voices will be heard, taken seriously, and acted upon, not shamed or dismissed. Denying a child the chance to speak is a form of violence,” she says. “It fosters shame, fear, and a lasting mistrust of both family and society.”
Despite the rising number of reported cases, many children remain unprotected due to weak law enforcement and societal stigma. Complaints are often dismissed as “family matters,” leaving victims trapped in fear.
Low reporting
When it comes to low reporting of such cases, family honour is not the only reason. Member of the National Commission for the Rights of Children, (NCRC), Pirbhu Lal Satyani says one of the most consistent problems across Pakistan is that families are often discouraged from filing FIRs, which delays investigations, so evidence is not collected properly.
The problem is not new. From 2018 to 2023, Sahil reported over 22,000 cases of child abuse in Pakistan. In 2022 alone, 4,253 children fell victim—an average of 12 children every day facing sexual violence. The number rose to 4,850 in 2023 and slightly declined to 4,700 in 2024, reflecting a persistently high rate of abuse despite awareness campaigns and legal reforms.
A few years ago, a series of brutal rapes and killings of at least eight girls in Kasur city shocked the country. Seven year old Zainab Ansari became the face of those children, in her pink dress and innocent smile. The serial killer was caught and eventually hanged but the child abuse has not ended. However an effort was made to legislate. Inspired by Amber Alert, the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act (ZARRA) was enacted which serves to recover missing and abducted children – across Pakistan. An app Zainab Alert was part of this, and often highlights children who are missing.
However, Sheherazade Amin, former Legal Advisor at the NCRC says she does not believe that ZARRA is effectively addressing the rising number of child abuse cases. She attributes this to a lack of capacity, sensitivity training, interagency protocols, and coordination — especially since child protection is a devolved provincial subject.
Family honour more important than the child?
Like Laiba there are many others.
In Okara, 13-year-old Zainab was repeatedly abused by her paternal uncle over the course of four long and torturous years. He lived in the same house as her, yet her parents never realized what was happening to her. It was only when Zainab began suffering from severe abdominal pain that her family took her to the hospital, where doctors revealed she was five months pregnant. Her father immediately filed a First Information Report (FIR), but within a week, he withdrew it because of pressure from relatives and social stigma.
“We withdrew the case to protect our daughter’s reputation,” said Zainab’s mother in a conversation with Voicepk.
But Sheherazade Amin specifies that child sexual abuse (CSA) is a non-compoundable offence under Pakistani law. This means that families do not have the right to withdraw cases.
“It’s a failure of both the police and the judicial system — morally and legally,” she told Voicepk.
On the other side, Satyani highlights that there are millions of children who remain unprotected in the system.
“Nearly 25 million children in Pakistan are out of school, so we need to bring child protection down to the community level,” said Satyani. “Local protection units can provide safety education and raise awareness among children about the importance of saying no and reporting abuse. This will also make it easier for families in rural areas, who often have to travel long distances to file a report.”
Comprehensive reforms
Although Pakistan’s child protection laws have improved, deterrence through prompt, high-quality investigations and timely trials remains weak, says Satyani. Stigma continues to silence victims, and service coverage is still inadequate.
“We now have the means to report more quickly, thanks to technology,” he says. “However, the extremely low conviction rates, the culture of silence, and the police’s reluctance to conduct thorough investigations have not changed. Closing these implementation gaps remains part of our mandate.”
Regardless of family preferences, Satyani suggests several changes to existing laws and procedures to ensure that cases of child abuse are taken seriously.
“First, child labour must be made illegal as it is world over,” he says. NCRC has already developed modifications to the PPC. However the integrity and speed of medico-legal services must be standardized, and provided by health agencies. “Monthly dashboards must be published and require inter-agency SOPs involving ZARRA, the police, the prosecution, the health department, and social welfare. There must be an increase in digital case-tracking to make adjournments public and explicable, and strictly enforce non-compoundability.”
Satyani also adds that a crucial change is that CSA cases should be prosecuted by the State whether or not families decide to drop charges. Too frequently, when families are forced to make concessions, cases fall apart. Lastly, PECA provisions for child pornography and internet grooming in addition to PPC offenses must be fully implemented, to ensure that abuse is prosecuted both online and offline.