WHEN we think of rehabilitation centres, we imagine places of healing — safe spaces where people recover and find their footing again. The reality, according to a deeply troubling new report, is far darker. The findings of the report — titled, ‘Caged in Care: Investigating Human Rights Abuse in Rehabilitation Centres’ — should concern every Pakistani.

In Islamabad alone, 300 rehabilitation centres exist, but only 25 are formally registered. A licence costs as little as Rs5,000, allowing anyone to run what is essentially a detention centre operating out of some converted house. Every single centre surveyed offered ‘involuntary pickup’ services. Not one of them required any documentation before admitting a patient — no medical assessment, no legal basis; just confinement.

The report found that women were routinely locked away after resisting forced marriages, asserting their independence, or simply making choices their families disapproved of. In one case, masked men dragged a woman from her own home and handed her over to a facility for no medical reason whatsoever.

This is surely nothing but a system where control has taken the place of care, particularly in the lives of women. These practices directly violate the Constitution and the country’s international human rights commitments.

This is not merely a healthcare failure; this is a human rights crisis hiding in plain sight. The government must act now. Strict registration requirements, mandatory psychiatric oversight, independent monitoring bodies, and a comprehensive federal mental health law are urgent; not optional. No person should fear that asking for help could cost them their freedom.

Iman Shahid
Rahim Yar Khan

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2026