THE Kasur scandal has brought child sexual abuse to the forefront of the national discourse. It is tragic that it should have taken an incident of such heinous proportions for us to acknowledge and openly discuss the prevalence of sexual abuse of children in our society.

The government’s initial reaction to the scandal is a reflection of the larger societal attitudes towards these incidents — attitudes based on repression and denial. The strategy may even be successful in the longer run as the incident could be labelled as an NGO or liberal agenda to defame Pakistan because such incidents are unlikely to occur in the Islamic Republic.

Denial and repression are also evident in the current state of legislation on child sexual abuse in Pakistan. For instance, Section 90 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) declares any consent (for sexual intercourse) given by a child under 12 years of age as invalid; Section 377 of the same criminalises unnatural offences which include same sex intercourse, a common form of child sexual abuse.

Society’s attitudes to sexual abuse of children are based on repression and denial.

After the 18th Amendment, the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act 2004 is the apex child protection law in the province. This law also criminalises the sexual abuse of children under Section 40 whereby a person who is involved in securing “custody of a child ostensibly for any purpose but exposes such a child to the risk of seduction, sodomy, prostitution or other immoral conditions, shall be punished with an imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and a fine which may extend to Rs50,000 or with both”.

There is an urgent need to update this legislation in two main areas. Firstly, the definition of child sexual abuse should be expanded to include the seemingly milder forms of abuse like stroking, touching and inappropriate exposure. Secondly, the punishment for the crime should be increased to deter future perpetrators.

In this regard, a criminal law amendment bill has been waiting approval in the Kafkaesque labyrinth of bureaucratic red tape. Apart from a number of progressive steps with regard to child protection, the bill proposes amendments in the PPC to expand the definition of sexual abuse of children; criminalise child pornography and ban internal trafficking (a major contributor to organised sexual abuse of children).

Unfortunately, much like society at large, the elected representatives of the people have also turned a blind eye to the plight of children vulnerable to abuse and exploitation — the bill is yet to be passed by the National Assembly and Senate.

It is imperative that the government pass this important piece of legislation to fulfill its commitment to our children and to the international community. Where the latter is concerned, Pakistan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. Both call for Pakistan to take effective legislative and administrative steps to curb child sexual abuse.

It must be understood, however, that legislation and policymaking will only provide relief to the victims and that too after they have agreed to report the abuse to law enforcers, a rare happening here where victims of sexual abuse are stigmatised. Consider one of the Kasur victims was picked up when he was nine years old — he is 18 now, at the time of disclosure.

Also, victims and their parents were being blackmailed by the perpetrators by using the dishonour associated with sexual abuse as a bargaining chip. In this regard, it is unfortunate that parents and village residents had to take to the streets to actually get the authorities to take note, and that too after the videos had been widely circulated.

Predators like those who sexually abused the children in Kasur thrive on our state of denial and tendency to overlook issues considered taboo here. This allows the perpetrator to continue with their onslaught and the victim has no recourse to relief or justice.

The Kasur incident can be a watershed moment for building a public narrative against the sexual abuse of children in Pakistan. This is not impossible in the current age of 24 hours news channels and use of social media platforms.

The Sahil Cruel Numbers report revealed that 3,508 children were sexually abused in Pakistan in 2014. This only represents a small proportion of the actual number of sexual abuse cases in Pakistan; the majority go unreported.

The Kasur incident, horrifying as it is, also provides an opportunity to bring taboo issues like the sexual abuse of children to mainstream public discourse which can lead to positive steps to nip the evil of child sexual abuse in the bud. The victims should not become mere statistics in a report.

The writer works in the development sector.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2015

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