In early August 2026, an 18-month-old baby girl named Aizel was taken out from her home in Karachi’s Qayyumabad by a 17-year-old relative who lived with the family. He told the family he was taking her to buy something to eat. When he returned, Aizel was unconscious. She was rushed to hospital and later died. Police arrested the teenager after registering a case on her father’s complaint; preliminary findings indicated sexual assault and murder. A month earlier, six-year-old Muhammad Wali disappeared from outside his home in Karachi’s Napier area. His family and neighbours searched for him and registered a kidnapping case. Two days later, his body was found stuffed in a sack. Police arrested his 20-year-old neighbour, who had reportedly joined the search, and investigators said the child had been sexually assaulted before his death. These are the cases that reached national headlines. There may be hundreds more that never do. A child may be too young to understand what happened, may fear the person who harmed them, or may depend on that person for care. Families may remain silent because of shame, stigma, pressure from relatives or fear of damaging the family’s reputation. When abuse is never reported to police, a hospital, a helpline or another institution, it disappears from the official picture. The cases we see are therefore only those whose experiences became visible.

The numbers that are visible across Pakistan are alarming enough. The National Commission on the Rights of Child’s State of Children in Pakistan 2025 recorded 5,024 charges under provisions relating to rape and sexual abuse of children in 2025 across Islamabad Capital Territory, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh. Girls accounted for 65 per cent of reported offences and boys for 35 per cent. Sahil’s Cruel Numbers 2025 recorded 3,630 reported cases of child abuse through its monitoring of 81 newspapers, an 8 per cent increase from 2024. The cases included 522 rapes, 195 attempted rapes, 108 gang rapes and 596 cases of sodomy. More than nine cases were reported every day. Moreover the Sahil’s Cruel Numbers 2026 from January to June recorded 1,914 cases of child abuse. These datasets use different sources and methodologies, but together reveal the scale of what becomes visible. They also reveal something important about who commits this abuse. Sahil found acquaintances to be the most commonly reported category of perpetrators.When the alleged perpetrator is known to the child, disclosure can threaten family relationships and social standing. Children may fear not being believed, while families may fear stigma, retaliation or pressure to protect a relative. The NCRC similarly identifies familiar environments, including homes, families, schools and communities, as spaces where children can face violence and abuse. The danger, therefore, is not always somewhere outside the home. Sometimes it is already inside the circle of trust.

Pakistan already has a substantial legal framework intended to protect children. The Pakistan Penal Code criminalises rape and sexual abuse, while the Criminal Laws (Second Amendment) Act 2016 strengthened provisions dealing with child sexual abuse, child pornography and related offences. The National Commission on the Rights of Child Act 2017 created the NCRC as a statutory body to monitor and promote children’s rights. The Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act 2020 was introduced to establish a coordinated mechanism for missing and abducted children, including the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Agency. The Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act 2021 introduced special procedures intended to improve the investigation and trial of rape cases and provide greater protection to survivors. On paper, Pakistan has laws addressing abuse, missing children, investigation, prosecution and child rights. The problem is whether these protections become real when a child needs them.

That gap becomes most visible when we examine implementation and reporting. More than five years after the Zainab Alert Act was passed, the Islamabad High Court was told in June 2026 that key provisions remained unimplemented, including the agency intended to issue rapid alerts for missing children. The court sought answers about rules, standard operating procedures, real-time information sharing, the Zainab Alert database and its integration with police systems. Child Helpline International reported in July that draft rules had finally been prepared after years of advocacy and judicial pressure, but were still awaiting approval. For child protection, delays of this kind are not merely administrative. A missing child cannot wait for an institution to become functional. Even after an FIR is registered, families can encounter delays, limited specialised investigation, weak forensic and medico-legal capacity, inadequate psychosocial support and poor coordination between police, child protection services and prosecutors. Madadgaar National Helpline 1098, a 24-hour child helpline, exists precisely because many children and families need support navigating these systems. Its experience also shows how fragmented the data remains: NCRC data based on ZARA Alert recorded 837 cases in 2025, while Madadgaar and other civil society organisations’ data suggested more than 4,000. The difference demonstrates how differently institutions see the same protection crisis.

Access to justice must therefore mean more than registering an FIR or securing a conviction. A child who reports abuse needs immediate safety, medical and medico-legal care, psychological support, legal assistance and protection from further contact with the alleged perpetrator. Evidence must be collected properly and quickly. Investigations need trained personnel. Court proceedings need to be child-sensitive and should not force survivors to repeatedly relive traumatic experiences. Yet Pakistan still struggles to consistently track what happens after a case is reported. The NCRC cites Punjab data showing 33,449 FIRs relating to child-rights violations and child sexual abuse and 4,727 convictions in 2025, while noting that comparable data were not available from all provinces. Without a national system that follows cases from complaint to investigation, prosecution, trial and rehabilitation, accountability can disappear between institutions.

A stronger system would make the referral process automatic: once abuse is reported, police, healthcare, child protection, psychosocial services and legal aid should work together rather than leaving families to coordinate the response themselves. District-level child protection units need trained social workers and resources, particularly outside major cities. ZARRA needs to become fully operational, with real-time information sharing and clear accountability. Schools, madrassas and other institutions working with children should have safeguarding policies and trained staff. Children should receive age-appropriate education about boundaries, unsafe behaviour and safe disclosure, while parents and caregivers should know how to respond when a child speaks. Pakistan also needs to use the NCRC’s emerging integrated data systems to track not only how many cases are reported, but what happens to each child afterwards. Aizel was too young to report what happened to her. Wali never got the chance either. But thousands of children still can. Whether they speak may depend on whether Pakistan can build a system that makes speaking safe, makes protection immediate and makes justice possible. The real test of child protection is not how many laws exist. It is what happens when a child finally says: something happened to me.

About the Author:

Momal Nawab is Program Officer at Accountability Lab Pakistan and can be reached at momal@accountabilitylab.org