Three and a half months. That is how long it reportedly took police in Sahiwal to register a rape and abduction case involving a 14-year-old schoolgirl. According to her mother’s complaint, the teenager was allegedly assaulted inside her home before being abducted at gunpoint. The girl’s whereabouts remain unknown.
That a child could disappear while the wheels of justice turned at such a leisurely pace demands an explanation from the highest levels of Punjab’s police command.
What happened during those months? When was the matter first brought to police attention? What efforts were made to trace the missing girl? These questions assume greater urgency in light of the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act, 2020, enacted after the horrific rape and murder of six-year-old Zainab Ansari in Kasur. The law requires police to notify the designated authorities within two hours of receiving a missing-child complaint. The Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act, 2021 further provides for specialised investigations, forensic examinations and protection for survivors. Pakistan has certainly not been short of legislation. Alas, the yawning gap between the law on paper and its enforcement tells a far more troubling story. According to the National Commission on the Rights of the Child, 17,348 cases involving child abuse and sexual offences were registered nationwide during 2025. Punjab accounted for 12,800, or nearly 74 per cent. Girls constituted 65 per cent of the victims, while children aged 11 to 17 figured in 86 per cent of the cases.
More disturbing still, as per official police records, Punjab registered 8,154 child-rape cases between 2021 and 2026. In 2024 alone, 1,916 were recorded. That works out to more than five children a day. How many more families must endure such ordeals before law enforcement begins working as it should?
There have been welcome institutional efforts. Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s administration established the Virtual Centre for Child Safety, whose early operations received more than 1,700 complaints. The Zainab Alert mechanism has also facilitated recoveries. Nevertheless, the NCRC’s latest figures show that of the 837 missing/abducted children reported to ZARRA during 2025, only 469 were recorded as recovered. Every child still unaccounted for represents a family waiting for answers.
Nor can delayed action be dismissed as an administrative inconvenience. Forensic evidence deteriorates, witnesses become harder to locate, and suspects may gain opportunities to intimidate complainants.
The girl’s immediate safety must take precedence over bureaucratic explanations. Her family deserves protection, legal assistance and access to psychological support. Above all, the authorities must account for the search and its progress without compromising the child’s safety.
A society that never tires of policing honour while failing to protect lives and dignity has forfeited the right to lecture anyone. No child should have to bear the burden of a crime committed against her. The shame belongs squarely to the perpetrators and to those entrusted with her protection who look the other way.
