Lost in numbers

Editorial Published September 14, 2026 Updated September 14, 2026 10: 08pm.

Key points

• According to the data cited by the senator, 57pc were documented from urban centres with 43pc from rural regions.
• Senator Sherry Rehman expressed deep concern over Pakistan's "serious child protection crisis", stressing "there can be no impunity for those who prey on children".
• Though it is not confirmed whether the crimes were surging, or more were being documented, the volume of injustice is monumental.
• Safeguards and psychosocial backing for victims and their families, together with awareness and education, must be produced central.

Editorial Published September 14, 2026 Updated September 14, 2026 10: 08pm. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

THE outrage against child abuse rages on. Sadly, state and society continue to bury their heads in the sand. All data points to the same bitter truths – most victims know their predators; incidents remain underreported; laws are rendered lifeless.

For context, the scale is at an alarming level: 1, 914 cases of violence and abuse against children were documented in the first half of 2026; 80pc occurred in Punjab. According to the data cited by the senator, 57pc were documented from urban centres with 43pc from rural regions. While 43pc of the accused were acquaintances of the victims, almost 45pc of incidents took place within the child's home.

Though it is not confirmed whether the crimes were surging, or more were being documented, the volume of injustice is monumental. What is indisputable is the fact that the state's response has exposed severe systemic failures.

Although Pakistan has enough laws to protect the young – the NCCIA Punjab ensures speedy registration, investigation and prosecution for cases involving women and children through its dedicated cell – proof of success is scarce.

Past debacles – from the 2015 pornography scandal involving hundreds of boys and girls in Kasur to the rape and murder of little Zainab Ansari in 2018 – have additionally failed to elicit a review of national priorities.

Notably, an FIR is a recognition of harm, not protection. Statutes, including the Criminal Law Amendment in 2016 and the Anti-Rape Act, alerts and movements must lead to an overhaul.

Safeguards and psychosocial backing for victims and their families, together with awareness and education, must be produced central. Abuse is not just detrimental to our children's mental and physical well-being, it threatens their academic prospects, sets off self-destructive tendencies, and creates more abusers. Delayed justice is innocence lost. Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2026.

For now, lost in numbers remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.