The past several days have brought devastating news of women being murdered, sexually assaulted and left as acid attack victims.
These incidents are not new, nor is their frequency unusually high this time around. If anything, it is the opposite. Fifty-six per cent of women who have experienced any form of physical or sexual violence have not sought help or spoken to anyone about it, in order to preserve ‘honour’. How many families quietly bury their daughters’ fates?
Pakistan currently ranks 130th out of 143 countries in the overall enforcement of fundamental liberties, and a mere 145th out of 148 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index. International human rights observers accordingly classify it as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women.
However, on the legal side, Pakistan has a sound normative legal framework for gender-based violence laws. The constitution of Pakistan guarantees equality before the law and explicitly forbids discrimination on the basis of sex. The national legal framework contains the following recent pro-women laws and amendments: the Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Act, 2011; the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Act, 2011; the Criminal Law (Amendment) (Offence of Rape) Act, 2016; the Criminal Law (Amendment) (Offences in the Name or Pretext of Honour) Act, 2016; the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016; and the Hindu Marriage Act, 2017. The Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act was also passed into law for the Islamabad Capital Territory, citing Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data that one in three women nationally experiences domestic abuse in her lifetime.
Along with this, Pakistan is a signatory to important international agreements, such as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). However, the implementation and enforcement of these laws is where the issue arises.
One major barrier is the socio-cultural stigma that prevents the judiciary, police, the prosecution system and citizens from implementing these laws effectively. To this day, sexual assault, domestic violence and harassment are treated as matters of honour and privacy and consequently go unreported. Moreover, victims who do come forward are subjected to victim-blaming by institutions and the public alike.
Particularly in rural and conservative areas, traditional parallel justice systems that take precedence over official state courts structurally sustain this epidemic of violence. These informal parallel systems are composed of influential, male-only local tribal elders or dominant local elites who act as judge and jury, either through hereditary privilege or nomination based on their social or economic status.
Most critically, Pakistan must invest in administrative capacity. Research on enforcement gaps consistently highlights structural weakness within the police and judiciary as a reason for weak enforcement. What Pakistan requires now is increased dedicated women’s police desks, trained female investigating officers in every district, not just major cities, and specialised prosecution units for gender-based violence. Because, in the absence of these mechanisms, the law remains theoretical.
Pakistan currently depends on non-profit organisations to document the numbers through annual reports and media monitoring. What we require is a formal tracking system in each district that would allow data to flow from districts up to the National Commission on the Status of Women; this would let policymakers see where laws are failing in practice, not just in retrospect.
Capacity-building for police and prosecutors should not be a one-time training exercise after a law passes; it needs to be sustained, especially as personnel rotate.
Legislation without a funding line is symbolic. Domestic violence shelters, legal aid funds (such as the Women in Distress and Detention Fund) and forensic infrastructure all need budget commitments tied directly to the law.
Hence, even though we are living in an era where gender equality and gender-responsiveness are being integrated into our workforce, education and policies, all of these efforts are rendered useless when one gender is not safe.
Pakistan does not need more legislation to prove its commitment to women’s safety. It needs the courage to fund, track and enforce the laws it has already written, and the political will to confront the tribal councils, social silence and institutional apathy that currently render them meaningless for the women they were written to protect.
The writer works at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad. She can be reached at: dua_mobeen@sdpi.org
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