By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Senator Sherry Rehman has expressed deep concern over the alarming rise in gender-based violence in Pakistan, revealing that 32,617 cases were reported in 2024 alone. She highlighted that, on average, daily reports included 67 kidnappings, 19 rapes, six cases of domestic abuse, and two honor killings.
Rehman said that in Punjab, of 4,641 rape cases, only 0.4 per cent resulted in convictions, while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa just two of 134 honor killings led to punishment. Sindh saw no convictions in 134 honor killings, 243 rape cases, or 375 instances of domestic violence. In Balochistan, 21 rape and 185 abduction cases produced no convictions.
Overall, she said, just 0.5 per cent of cases result in punishment, while 64 per cent end in acquittals, exposing systemic failures, weak investigations, and institutional gaps that allow perpetrators to act with impunity. In Islamabad, none of the 22 honor killings reported resulted in convictions, she added. Despite 480 gender-based violence courts nationwide, a backlog of 21,891 cases from 2023 remained unresolved.
