Pakistan recorded over 1900 crimes against children in first six months of 2026
Islamabad, Oct 24 (IANS) Pakistan recorded 1,914 cases of crimes against children between January and June this year, more than half of them involving sexual abuse, with nearly 45 per cent of incidents taking place in the victims’ own homes, a report has revealed.
According to a report in ‘Asian News Post’, the figures compiled by child-rights organisation Sahil show that the laws written in the books have failed to translate into dependable protection for children in Pakistan.
“Behind these figures lies a persistent failure of institutions to prevent harm, secure accountability and ensure that children are not left to navigate a system that too often responds after the damage has been done,” the report stated.
Sahil’s six-month report recorded 1,015 cases of child sexual abuse, 558 abductions, 101 missing children, 35 child marriages and 98 cases of pornography following sexual abuse, besides 49 cases of infants found abandoned by roadsides. Girls made up 58 per cent of the reported victims.
Citing data quoted by Senator Sherry Rehman, the report said 43 per cent of the accused were known to their victims, making abuse especially hard for children to disclose.
“When violence occurs within a household, the place conventionally associated with safety becomes a setting in which a child may have little power to escape or challenge the abuse,” it noted.
The province of Punjab accounted for 80 per cent of the cases recorded in the first half of the year and Sindh for 15 per cent, while 43 per cent of the incidents were reported from rural areas, the report said.
It highlighted that despite laws such as the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act, 2020, enacted after the rape and murder of seven-year-old Zainab Ansari in Kasur, key provisions remained unimplemented, with the Islamabad High Court being told in June that the agency meant to issue rapid alerts for missing children was yet to be set up.
“A law designed to coordinate the response to a missing child cannot fulfil its purpose merely because it has been passed by parliament. Its effectiveness depends on the institutions, procedures and accountability mechanisms that make it work,” the report said.
It added that the slight dip from 1,956 cases recorded in the same period of 2025 offered little reason to believe the problem had eased, since Sahil’s data is drawn from newspaper reports and many cases never reach the media.
–IANS
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