perspective- child protection

Juvenile Offenders in Punjab

The total number of convicted and undertrial juveniles imprisoned in various borstal institutes and jails of Punjab province was 645 as on 15 March 2022 (Prisons Department, Govt. of Punjab). Out of the total number of juvenile offenders, 81% (523) juveniles were on trial (under trial) and 19% were convicted juvenile offenders. All juvenile offenders were male and no female…

Permitted age for employment of children as domestic workers

Do you know what the minimum age is for children in the different provinces of Pakistan to be employed as domestic workers? Child labour is a provincial subject in Pakistan after the 18th Constitutional Amendment in 2010. The 18th Constitutional Amendment devolved the issue of labour and employment to the…

The Age Of Consent And The Borders Of Belief

ICT Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2025 marks a pivotal step toward a…

Ghost Schools

KARACHI: Apropos the letter “Ghost Teachers” published on September 19, 2024, the…

When Tradition Becomes Deadly

PESHAWAR/ LAHORE/ KARACHI: Every now and then, some isolated case of honour killings makes its way to the media. However, beyond individual tragedies lies a bleak national picture, where family forgiveness, judicial delays, and weaknesses in law enforcement allow innocents to continue being killed in the name of honour. Honour…

Children Betrayed

JUST when we thought Pakistan had made meaningful progress and the debate on child marriage was nearly settled, a spanner has been thrown into the spokes of reform. Four years after the Federal Shariat Court’s ruling in 2021 that setting a minimum marriage age is not in contradiction with Islam,…

Digital Sexual Exploitation

As the international world processes the heinous amounts of child sexual abuse data released from the Epstein files, at home the National Cyber Crimes Investigation Agency of FIA has uncovered a major network involved in the sexual exploitation of children via blackmail. A prime suspect, hailing from Murree, has been…

For Distressed Children, Railway Stations Become a Refuge

LAHORE: Railway stations across Pakistan are increasingly becoming refuge points for children fleeing troubled homes, as poverty, domestic tensions, corporal punishment, and the influence of social media push minors onto the streets. According to official data shared by Pakistan Railways Police, 658 children, including 413 boys and 245 girls, were…

Beyond the CRC review

Pakistan’s sixth and seventh periodic review before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), held in Geneva on January 15-16, 2026, marked an important moment of reflection and accountability, examining progress made since the previous review in 2016. More than a formal reporting obligation, the review…

Custody Without Protection

The reported gang rape of a minor girl in Jacobabad by policemen in custody is a failure of procedure that demands serious institutional reckoning. Furthermore, the subsequent arrest of six policemen is being presented as proof that the system works. It is not. Accountability that begins and ends with junior…

The Horrors of AI

The year 2026 started on an alarming note regarding the use of artificial intelligence. One of the viral cases these days is Britain’s media regulator investigation into Elon Musk’s X over concerns its Grok AI chatbot was creating sexually intimate deepfake images in violation of its duty to protect people…

Stray Dogs, Unsafe Streets, and Forgotten Children

A few days ago, I watched a boy no older than 10 or 12 dragging a sack of garbage larger than his own body. He was doing what thousands of children across Pakistan do every day, collecting recyclable waste to earn a living. Suddenly, several street dogs began barking. Moments…

Recognising Child Marriage

A sessions court in Karachi last week found an adult, who had married a minor, guilty under the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013, sentencing him to two years in prison alongside a Rs25,000 fine. The court, however, declared that convictions under the Act do not nullify the validity of…

Rising Divorce Drives Daily Child Visits

RAWALPINDI: With the close of 2025, a record and alarming increase has been witnessed in meetings between divorced parents and their separated children at the family facilitation centre of the Rawalpindi Judicial Complex. The rise, which continued throughout the year on a monthly basis, is primarily attributed to the growing…

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