Abuse of its children, women, transgenders and economically weaker sections places Pakistan in the company of Sub Sahara countries. Perhaps it leaves behind these countries in the art of making men, women, boys and girls disappear forever or kill them in fake encounters.  Rape is like epidemic in Pakistan, making it the Rapistan.

Believe it or not, about five lakh children are abused in Pakistan every year. This is the finding of a leading daily, the Sindh Express published   from Hyderabad, the eighth largest city of the country. This figure does not include unreported cases which could be many times more. The Sindh Express’s report is an eye opener, detailing as it does of how small girls and boys are kidnapped for rape and sodomy in the land of the pure, as Pakistan carved out of British India in 1947 as the home for Muslims, is known. 

The News International (a leading English daily from Karachi, the commercial capital of the country) reported that as many as 2211 cases of child abuse were registered in the past six months. Of them, 1207 were girls.   Majority of the victims suffered rape or sodomy. Sodomy of young boys is a daily occurrence in Pakistan. There is no official record on children abused for pornography and prostitution.

2101 children were kidnapped, raped or sodomised in the past six months, says The News. The largest province Punjab, which is steeped in feudalism, tops the list with 1,564 child abuse cases. The break- up for other provinces is: Sindh – 338 cases, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – 77 cases and Baluchistan – 23 cases. The federal capital chipped in with 99 cases.

According to a media report, young boys and girls are picked up from garbage dumps. “As they are rummaging for leftover food, discarded toys and the like, mafia lures them into their net”, according to an Urdu daily.   Crooks, who make blue films, lure small girls with money. Other hunting grounds include durgahs where children, who ran away from their homes, reach for free food. While good-looking girls are either sold to brothels or drafted into pornography, young boys become victims of sodomy and are made to run illegal errands.

Successive Governments in Pakistan are aware of child abuse but have done precious little to curb the menace. Nor have they addressed the issue of school drop outs, which remains very high. Lakhs of children are deprived of education, going by official statistics, which attribute the phenomenon to all-pervasive poverty.

“Either their parents are too poor to send them to school or there is no school in their vicinity.  If there is a school, there are no teachers”, said a recent media report, poking fun at Pakistan’s homily to the Taliban Government in Afghanistan on women and their rights. 

The condition of women in Pakistan is worse than that of their Afghan sisters.  The Afghan Taliban does not hide their dislike of women unlike Pakistan, which obfuscates the issue to divert attention.

To the Taliban’s credit, it must be said, there are no cases of rape or killing of women to protect the honour of the family. The honour killing is known locally as Karo Kari. And it is not considered a crime even by educated people in Pakistan.

Pakistan is neither fully Sub -Saharan, nor fully modern and nor fully Islamic. The male dominated administration does not bother much about the woes of women and children.

Pakistan ranks 167 in a list of 170 countries on the Global Women, Peace and Security Index. It was placed 153rd on the Global Gender Gap Index.

In its 2022 report, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Pakistan has a plague like problem of women abuse – rape, murder, acid attack, domestic violence and forced marriages. The HRW has left out forced conversions and kidnappings of very young Hindu and Christian girls for forced marriage.

Pakistan is the second worst country when it comes to gender inequality, shows HRW data on violence against women. This inequality is reflected in education, job market, and sports even. 

During his dictatorship Gen Zia-ul Haq (July 1977 – March 1988) banned sports for girls on the advice of Islamist mullahs who complained that girls’ contours could be seen when they play. After much protests, Zia relented but banned men watching girls playing. That ticked off Pakistani girls’ participation in international sports.

It is possible that the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan will do one-up on Zia to ward off global pressure for a better deal for women. (POREG)

— The writer is a regular contributor to Poreg