It is very unfortunte that the cases of sexual abuse of women are increasing in Pakistan. In the same week that a female doctor was raped in India last month, there were reports of a woman being gang-raped in the capital Islamabad.

Apart from this, there were many incidents of rape of women in different cities of Punjab. These were the incidents which were reported by the affected women in the police station while there are numerous incidents which the victims do not report. Karachi has also seen an increase in incidents of harassment of women and the police seems powerless to prevent these incidents, which encourages the criminals.  Generally, it has been observed that even if the criminal involved in such heinous incidents is arrested, the lawyer of the criminal asks the victim woman in the court such questions about the incident in the presence of the family, which makes the woman more harassed and embarrassed. Which benefits the criminal and after getting bail or acquittal in the case, he goes in search of new victim. Unfortunately, we are becoming a part of a society where women are not safe not only in life but also in the grave after death.

 In recent days, the incident of desecrating a woman's body by taking it out of the grave in Karachi has shocked everyone. The arrested accused involved in the incident confessed to his crime and told the police that he used to keep an eye on fresh graves in the cemetery and used to commit this heinous crime late at night. It is noteworthy that the accused was arrested from the cemetery for the same crime 8 years ago but was released on bail.  The recent incident has forced us to think about how low we are falling, but if the criminals involved in these heinous incidents are not dealt with with iron hands, these incidents will intensify.In view of the increasing incidents of women's humiliation in Pakistan, in 2021, a bill to deprive rape offenders of their sexual capacity (the act of making them impotent) was presented in the National Assembly, but due to international pressure and some other factors it could not materialise. Actually, the Islamic Ideological Council also declared this bill un-Islamic. No further progress could be made on the bill as the punishment was declared un-Islamic. There is a need to make such strict laws to remedy the rape of women, according to which such crimes are declared non-bailable and the criminals involved should be punished immediately so that such incidents can be resolved. We have to remove the misunderstanding regarding gender equality and change the overall societal attitude. Pakistan signed the SIDA Convention on the Elimination of Gender Discrimination at a time when very few countries had done so, so it was believed that gender discrimination would be eradicated soon, but the implementation mechanism took a long time and is yet to be fully implemented. 

Pakistan has to submit its report to the international organizations every year regarding the international agreements, which is submitted by writing 'All is well', before giving the report, it should be shared with the civil society and other stakeholders. There are policies regarding women's development, youth development, human rights, but unfortunately, the work is left incomplete after creating a mechanism. People don't know about their basic human rights including other laws, they don't have access to institutions and they don't raise their voice for their rights, monitoring is easy in terms of workplace harassment but in public places it is difficult. No mechanism exists, how many people in the Minar Pakistan incident knew about the nature of the crime and the punishment? Apart from this, in other cases of violence and harassment of women, people kept making videos, do they know the law and the punishment? Are they afraid of law, police, security agencies and punishment? This is not the weakness of the state and institutions During the current regime, problems like violence against women and children have increased, implementation of laws has decreased, so we have to review the policies and performance and remove them where there are problems. It is mandatory to formulate a code of conduct in government and non-government institutions, but is it being implemented? Are Women Harassment Committees established and functioning? Isn't this work only limited to papers and photos? It is a pity that except for a few specific women's institutions, no one knows about this. All bus stands, public transport, parks and public places should publicize existing laws regarding violence and harassment against women and make them gender-friendly.The recent times have proved to be harrowing for women who are not only subjected to all sorts of human rights violations and crimes but also killed with impunity under the cover of various excuses arising out of victims blaming mainly the honour killings.

One feels for loss of words when looking at the plight of women who are not falling prey to crimes but also the subsequent victims-blaming culture while the perpetrators go scot free.No place is safe for them which is evident form the rising cases of rape and murder across the country. The rape cases illustrate the major cause why the crime of rape is so boldly committed in our society. The reason is victim- blaming and no punishment for the rapists in majority of cases. It is due to victim's blaming  which place the blame on the women for 'bringing' the crime on themselves for wearing inappropriate clothes or moving freely etc in the society that most victims and their families avoid reporting the  cases to avoid stigma and further torture in the form of slur against the victims which is evident from the existing numbers i.e., with an estimated nine out of 10 cases are not reported or registered.Most of the cases are brushed aside and buried in the patriarchal society where silencing the victims is norm of the day.