Child abuse in Pakistan

Sarmad Ali

I urge the authorities and Punjab government to chalk out a roadmap to prevent such sexual abuse incidents from happening again.

In Pakistan, women and children are the most vulnerable beings. The recent child abuse scandal of Kasur is a landmark example of their vulnerability in Pakistan. The incident has been observed by human rights groups worldwide, which have expressed their concerns and sympathy to the affected children and women. Child abuse incidents in hierarchical and patriarchal societies, in the early 18th and 19th centuries, were widespread all over the world and especially in England. In ancient Greece, child marriages and adulterous relationships between a man and a boy were very common practices. It was then believed that the relationship of a man and a boy was a contribution from an adult man to a boy’s education, as per some historians. There was a segment of society in ancient Greece that could not entertain such practices and traditions and spoke out against them. However, advanced modern-day societies wholly banished such exploitation of children years ago. On the contrary, child exploitation still exists in third world countries, despite laws, especially in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Children across the globe have suffered abuse of all sort for years but abuse incidents had never been discussed on public forums until 1890, when a British newspaper, the Pall Mall Gazette, highlighted child abuse issues in England for the first time. Between 1830 and 1885, all documented sexual abuse and sexual violence in London involved children. Furthermore, until 1970, child pornography, paedophilic relationships and all such horrendous and immoral acts had not been recognised at all. The international community drafted laws and conventions pertaining to child pornography in the early 1990s, prohibiting all sorts of children-related pornography. On November 12, 1990, the UN promulgated the Child Rights Convention (CRC) relating to children’s rights. It also encapsulated the child pornography prohibition and, to date, 95 countries are party to that, including Pakistan. In spite of that, the situation in the third world is miserable and alarming.

A number of children face abuse every day and no one notices it because society does not understand what abuse is. CRC Article 34 reads that the government shall take steps to protect children from all sorts of sexual exploitation and abuse. Article 36 and Protocol 2 of the Convention explicitly talk about the sexual abuse of children, child prostitution, exploitation, etc. The Convention is a complete code, which was introduced by the UN to ensure rights to children across the globe. After the promulgation of the UN Convention, in order to fulfil its international obligations and to promote a sense of security in UK children, the government of the UK promulgated the Sexual Offences Act in 2003. This Act contains a number of Articles that cover child abuse, exploitation, pornography, etc, and lists the punishments for such crimes. Even India passed an Act in 2012, called the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act, 2012, related to child sexual abuse.

There are a number of provisions in the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and some Ordinances especially passed by parliament to protect children across Pakistan. All those laws have never been followed in letter or spirit by the law enforcing agencies, i.e. the police. Most of the time the police fail to understand and therefore do not incorporate provisions that are embodied in the PPC and Ordinances covering child abuse and sexual exploitation at the time of drafting a First Information Report (FIR). It is not out of place to mention that none of Pakistan’s provinces has any law against child pornography; this area of child abuse is unattended. There is an urgent need to enact laws that prohibit child pornography in order to curb such a heinous crime.

It is the writer’s opinion that child abuse, especially sexual abuse, affects the victims’ self-esteem, confidence and also their future prospects, i.e. family and marital affairs. I got the following information from SAHIL — a non-profit organisation that works across Pakistan for the rights of children. Every year, many cases of child abuse are registered with the police; for instance, 3,508 cases were filed with the authorities and 3,002 cases were reported in 2013 across Pakistan. According to SAHIL, “During the first six months of 2015, the police data shows that 577 sodomy and 45 hurt cases were reported in Punjab besides 35 murders and 20 attempted murder cases.” It has also been reported that 239 children were kidnapped and 10 children were abducted for ransom during the same period. It is the writer’s opinion that Pakistan is a conservative society, where most people do not muster the courage to report such cases to the police or speak out against abuse. Because of this fact, the cases of abuse get no attention from the media or human rights organisations. The affected families or victims themselves ought to report to the authorities about the abuse that they have suffered.

The latest child abuse case reported from Kasur tells that some 380 children, including girls, have been sexually abused since 2009 but none of the victims or their families reported the case to the police or media. The question is, why did they not report this to the police? It may be because of social fears or, if they had reported it, the authorities would not have paid enough attention, drawn up an FIR or initiated legal proceedings against those who sexually exploited vulnerable children and women. I believe that there is no policy or plan available to curb such miserable and alarming incidents. I urge the authorities and Punjab government to chalk out a roadmap to prevent such sexual abuse incidents from happening again. The Chief Minister (CM) of Punjab requested the Lahore High Court Chief Justice (CJ) to establish a commission to look into the matter. His plea has been rejected by the honourable CJ of the Lahore High Court on the basis that fact finding had been begun by the police and the arrest of those who had been involved in that case affected. The CM made a move by requesting the CJ but his Member Provincial Assembly of the Kasur village where the incident had taken place, attempted to cover up the abuse in connivance with the police. I end in the hope that the affected women and children will get justice and that the perpetrators will be punished for life.