THE scourge of female disappearances in Pakistan should be a matter of shame. Institutional reforms and criminalising chauvinistic traditions remain long overdue measures. The Lahore High Court, during the hearing of a case of disappearance, was informed by Punjab’s police chief that over 500 cases of girls reported missing were still pending in the province. The figure was shocking for the court. Not only was concern expressed at the ordeal of the families of the missing, the negligence of police was also underscored in this regard. Chief Justice Aalia Neelum inquired about mechanisms to tackle cases involving women and children. The IGP stated that such incidents would be handled by special committees.

The crisis of our ‘missing’ daughters has detrimental repercussions for victims. Those recovered are forced to live with multiple accusations from their kin who often suspect sexual exploitation. Many fall prey to sex trafficking and are sold to organised prostitution networks, or are registered as kidnap cases when they run away to escape forced marriages. As most of them hail from poor areas and families, the authorities often dismiss their kidnappings as ‘elopement’, without any investigation. That it takes various court orders for police to pursue these abductions implies gross apathy, negligence, and the absence of accountability. For years, adequate action to arrest the trend in the rural and urban areas of the province, and the lack of protection for victims who return or are rescued against the tag of ‘dishonour’, have been non-existent. It is time these cases were also seen as part of the thriving sex trafficking rings in the country. In 2022, police figures showed that 3,571 abducted girls and women were missing across Punjab; a total of 40,585 women were kidnapped between 2017 and January 2022. Keeping the girl child safe entails going beyond reasons of domestic dispute and investigating prolonged disappearances as possible cases of trafficking.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2026