Nearly five years after the Anti-Rape Act, 2021, figures show a disturbing parity between reporting sexual violence and securing convictions. Legislation is only part of the issue; investigations, forensic evidence, court delays and institutional accountability are equally critical.
A case was registered by police concerning the alleged gang rape of a 20-year-old Azerbaijani national in Lahore. According to the reports, multiple suspects had been identified and one suspect was arrested, meanwhile forensic findings still pending ( September 2026).
A 17-year-old girl was reported to have died after an alleged gang-raped by five men in Mandi Bahauddin. Police registered a case, but the report said the gang-rape allegation had yet to be established through medical and forensic evidence (August 2026).
A woman reportedly alleged that four men abducted and gang-raped her in May. Police registered a case only after an inquiry by the Punjab police chief. The inquiry found local police officials negligent and recommended departmental action (August 2026).
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A gang rape case was registered by Gujjarpura police, against three men only, after a video relating to the alleged incident surfaced nearly a month later ( June 2026).
These are just four reported gang-rape cases from a few months of the current year in Punjab, Pakistan, yet they clearly reveal departmental negligence, official orders prompting action, and delayed investigations.
In December 2021, Pakistan enacted the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act, designed to strengthen investigations, establish specialized courts and accelerate proceedings in sexual-offence cases. The legislation represented an important recognition that conventional criminal procedures were not adequately addressing the needs of survivors.
However, according to a recent investigate report by an esteemed national daily, between 2021 and mid-2026, Pakistan’s four provinces registered 47,452 cases across five categories of rape-related offences. The data shows large number of unresolved cases and relatively few convictions across several categories. These figures are not a full picture of sexual violence in Pakistan; they cover registered cases within the specified datasets.
The distinction is important. Police registrations are not a gauge of total prevalence, nor is a pending case equivalent to an acquittal. Still, the figures point towards serious questions regarding the effectiveness of investigation and prosecution of the reported offences.
The report’s most alarming finding is Punjab’s concentration of cases. Punjab alone accounts for 89.7 per cent of rape-related cases in the four-province dataset. Gang rape alone comprises 62.8 per cent of the total national rape-related data.
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The report also highlights failures in forensic evidence collection and preservation, police-medical coordination, failures in the implementation of legal reforms, and lack of accountability for investigative shortcomings.
Such failures can sink a prosecution before a trial. Delayed examinations, incomplete documentation and improperly preserved samples can weaken the evidence, leaving survivors in prolonged proceedings with no guaranteed outcome.
To cite just one example, in January 2026, a Karachi sessions court sentenced a man to ten years in prison for raping his 18-year-old daughter and imposed a Rs100,000 fine meant as compensation for the survivor under the Anti-Rape Act.
However, it was highlighted that the investigating officer did not collect key evidence, including the survivor’s clothing. So even though the court gave its judgment and sentence, the case also showed an investigative mistake that could have made the prosecution harder.
This case shows a bigger problem: prosecutions should not depend on luck or on courts correcting investigative failures that could be prevented.
Every case need a professional investigation, led by evidence, careful documentation, proper medical and forensic support, and close coordination between investigators and prosecutors.
Meaningful reform begins with the people who handle these cases. Investigation officers and prosecutors need specialized training in sexual-offence cases, including evidence collection, forensic procedures, interviewing victims and preserving digital evidence, and they need timely access to medico-legal examinations and functioning forensic services, with evidence collected and preserved under established protocols and responsibility assigned at every stage.
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Specialized courts, in turn, need sufficient staffing, proper resources and monitoring to lessen avoidable delays, though expedited trials must deliver timely, fair proceedings rather than compromise due process. Throughout, survivors require confidential reporting mechanisms, legal assistance, protection from intimidation and appropriate psychological and social support.
Publicly available data should track each case from registration to investigation, prosecution, trial and final outcome, conviction, acquittal or pending. It should also separate offence categories, reporting periods and outcomes so different measures are not confused.
What does justice mean for a victim or survivor reports to a rape, submits to a medical examination, cooperates an investigation and waits for a trial that may take years to finish?
For thousands of women in Pakistan, the question is not theoretical. It is a test of a criminal justice system that has introduced legal reforms but continues to struggle with implementation.
For survivors, the difference between a law on paper and a functioning justice system is profound, and the real measure of reform is not how many laws Pakistan passes, but whether survivors have access to justice without avoidable delays, intimidation or institutional neglect.
*The views presented in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Diplomatic Insight.*
Fareeha Sultan
Fareeha Sultan is a freelance writer based in Islamabad.
