Sherry Rehman Calls for Urgent Action to Close Enforcement Gaps in Pakistan’s Gender-Based Violence Laws
Islamabad: Vice President of the Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Sherry Rehman called for urgent, coordinated action to ensure effective implementation of Pakistan’s gender-based violence (GBV) laws, while pursuing the notice she has submitted in the Senate for further action in the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights.
The meeting was convened on Senator Rehman’s notice and pursuant to a motion she tabled in the Senate to review the state of GBV legislation, enforcement, and outcomes.
Senator Rehman noted that Pakistan has enacted a significant number of laws at both federal and provincial levels to address violence against women, with additional legislation currently under consideration. However, she stressed that the persistent gap between lawmaking and enforcement continues to undermine justice. “The media and the public repeatedly ask us: you make laws, but where is the implementation?” she said, adding that this question must be answered with concrete action rather than assurances.
Senator Rehman said that it has become a source of disquiet for lawmakers like her who have been pushing GBV laws in different iterations since 2002, there is a still a huge gap in their implementation. “Ensuring the safety, dignity, and rights of women is a constitutional responsibility of the state and a core priority of the Pakistan Peoples Party,” she emphasized.
Some alarming numbers were highlighted for sexual abuse, murder, rape acid attack and domestic violence during the meeting: a total of 28059 cases were decided by the trial courts, out of which 26842 cases resulted in acquittal. Out of which 21877 were acquitted due to resiling of witnesses e.g. complainant/victim/star witnesses.In compoundable offences like murder and hurt cases, 1299 were acquitted on compromise.3171 cases have resulted in acquittal on merit. 1217 cases were convicted on merit.
Further, sharing recent statistics, Senator Rehman stated that during 2024 alone, 32,617 cases of gender-based violence were reported across Pakistan, including rape, abduction, domestic violence, and killings in the name of so-called honour. Despite the establishment of 480 GBV courts nationwide, she noted that the backlog of cases continues to grow at an alarming rate, further delaying justice for survivors.
Citing findings from the report of the Law Commission of Pakistan and the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), Senator Rehman described the available data on gender-based violence as deeply troubling. She pointed out that the conviction rate in GBV cases remains extremely low at just 5 percent, while 64 percent of cases result in acquittals, raising serious questions about investigation standards, prosecution, and judicial processes.
“This issue is like an iceberg,” Senator Rehman said. “A large number of cases are never reported, never registered, and never documented. What we see in official figures is only a fraction of the actual scale of violence faced by women.
According to Human Rights Watch, 70% of GBV incidents go unreported due to survivors’ fear of retaliation and societal victim-blaming.”
She further emphasized that low conviction rates are exacerbated by systemic pressures placed on survivors, police officials, prosecutors, and judicial officers, often allowing powerful interests to influence outcomes. “We must ask ourselves how we can ensure that justice is not subordinated to private pressures and vested interests,” she said.
Senator Rehman asserted, “Through the committee and the cooperation of the committee Chairperson Senator Samina Mumtaz, we had asked for police departments, prosecutorial officials, advocate generals, NCHR, NCSW, and all federal, provincial departments to be here at an intersection where we can find ways to plug the loopholes in laws which are allowing such low conviction rates. This is key to implementation of these laws , and officials brought very clear and important recommendations which are now being collated by the Secretary of the committee for further action and reforms in the each of the provinces as needed.”
She further added “The task should be to break the cycle of impunity that enables victim shaming and adversarial social and police as well as prosecutorial environments in such cases.”
Senator Rehman also raised concerns about social attitudes that perpetuate impunity. She criticized the widespread culture of victim-blaming, where the focus shifts from the crime to the character of the survivor. Referring to Geo tv drama serial “Case No. 9”, based on GBV courts, she acknowledged its role in raising awareness but cautioned that even such narratives sometimes reinforce harmful stereotypes by placing implicit blame on victims.
Shedding light on the gravity of societal normalization of violence, Senator Rehman cited a disturbing incident in which a perpetrator of an honour killing was publicly welcomed with drum-beating and congratulated. “This reflects a dangerous mindset that glorifies violence and must be confronted head-on,” she said.
Concluding her remarks, Senator Rehman stated, “We have made the laws. Now the real challenge is ensuring their effective and uniform implementation.”
Acknowledging that transformative change cannot happen overnight, she called for practical, time-bound measures to strengthen investigations, protect survivors, improve prosecution, and address institutional weaknesses. “If we cannot bring a revolution in one night, we must at least break this stagnation through sustained reform and accountability,” she said.