Pakistan is considered as the six most dangerous country in the world for women and the statistics of crimes such as rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, forced marriages give a clear proof of this statement. The fact that our subsequent governments, in a profound delinquency, could not make effective laws for the protection of women and never really focused on devising systematic strategies to bring them into execution, reinforced this notion in the minds of the perpetrators that no matter what they do, laws cannot bound them. This kind of behavior provides more impetus to the sex offenders to commit repeated crimes without any fear of accountability.

The history is enough as a reference, that in Pakistan the widespread social evils, especially the act of rape has been trivialized to an extent that one can easily identify the lack of seriousness on the part of the government to tackle the issue. An international non-governmental organization, Human Rights Watch, had issued an extensive report on the performance of the government and the relevant strategies adopted by it while fighting off the rape culture. The report mentions some of the factors contributing to the horrendous crime including the inability of the society in properly defining the act of rape; the even-handed laws and ineptness of the criminal courts; dispassionate police officials and incompetent law enforcement agencies; absence of medicolegal officials for examination, and an undue societal pressure. The cases are found to be under reported and the conviction rate is even lower, under 3% across the country. The low level of conviction rate is clear evidence that the government is not planning to deracinate this evil by taking stringent actions in the right direction. There is some lacking that has been staying here since the eruption of this evil that could not be deciphered by the concerned authorities. The government cannot justify its lack of performance by merely stating that it has successfully issued an ordinance dealing with the rape cases and established special courts to penalize the perpetrators. It should understand that the absence of proper legislation was one out of a myriad of reasons as stated in the report.

The overhauling of the entire system in order to make Pakistan a rape free country has become the need of the hour that can only be possible by creating a sense of urgency among the stakeholders. As per the report published by Human Rights Watch, there is a general bias in the criminal justice system of the country where in the past the occurrence of rape cases had been rejected, taking the matter as something “not serious” and just a product of social and religious norms. Also, the courts have found to be overturning the rape cases on the grounds that the victim has only her “words” as an evidence and not “bodily marks” of violence. Such kind of rulings needs to be considered by the respective officials as a lesson when resolving the rape cases. One single negligence can break the hopes of so many victims that expect justice to be delivered properly.

Another matter of great concern appears to be the behavior and dealings of police officials with the women who consult them for registering the complaints of violence. Most of them see the victims as “real culprits” and regard their critical condition as something being fabricated to escape any trauma they face. Due to the prevalence of patriarchal code of “honor” in our country, police officials condemn women for dragging the “family matter” to police stations and courts and advise them to solve it at home. As a result of this patriarchal norm and stigma attached to it, the police become determined to believe that women need no legal protection against this “offence” that they do not even regard as “offence” simply because the legal agencies and the society are not ready to accept it. The societal misunderstanding about the issue and the general unacceptance by the legal authorities have complicated the process of conviction, making it easy for the perpetrators to escape any legal action. The role of civil society activists in raising the awareness about this serious crime among the general public has become extremely crucial now. People need to know what really rape is, its causes and the steps needed to purge society off this crime.

The police officials, on other hand, cannot be exempted from their duties and are expected to deliver them in a responsible manner. Upon receiving the complaints of rape, the police should act on the following lines. It should immediately register the FIR without showing any sign of inconvenience to the victim. Defining the cause of the crime in the report should be taken as a top priority. A magistrate officer dealing with the cases should be available 24 hours a day, attending the permits of medicolegal exam. 

There should be more appointments of female police having a task-oriented behavior, reflecting a professional and kind attitude that makes women at ease. The police officials who show prominent skills in tackling the rape cases right from the process of registering the complaints to the final delivering of results based on all possible evidence, should be given extra bonus. This rewardful treatment will certainly bring more enthusiasm in the officials to deal with the rape cases with utmost sincerity and seriousness. Nevertheless, the issue at hand cannot be resolved until all the stakeholders participate equally and fight against it with strength of determination.

What befalls us is an issue

That has threatened women as well as children,

And has turned them into slaves,

Forsaken slaves of those who are never punished,

For committing the gravest of crimes.