KARACHI: How long will children continue to fall victim to sexual violence? Saira used to leave her three children with her maternal uncle before going to the hospital, as her husband was critically ill. After her husband passed away, her eight-year-old daughter stood in front of her with folded hands and begged her never to leave them with that uncle again.

When Saira asked the reason, the child revealed that she had been sexually abused multiple times by her uncle.

Saira immediately registered an FIR. Instead of receiving support, family members came forward to defend the accused and attacked the character of an eight-year-old child. The case was taken to the District and Sessions Court in Karachi.

Despite her young age, the child gave her statement under oath, and medical examinations confirmed that she had been assaulted multiple times. Even then, she faced aggressive questioning and character assassination by the defense. Shockingly, testimonies from her own aunts and uncles were used to discredit her.

The defense claimed that Saira had falsely accused the family to gain property and tried to have the case dismissed on the grounds that the child had not preserved her clothes as evidence. The court rejected these arguments. Relying on the survivor’s consistent testimony and medical reports, the court sentenced the uncle to 20 years in prison along with a fine of PKR 500,000. The High Court later stated that crimes of this nature leave deep scars on society.

Such crimes are increasing in our society. In the first six months of 2025, approximately 1,956 cases of child abuse were reported across Pakistan — a 20% increase compared to the same period in 2024. An average of 12 children per day or one every two hours were subjected to sexual abuse in Pakistan in 2023, a report by a NGO says, it said there were 1,207 girls and 1,020 boys in the cases it recorded in 2023. They said that most of the abuse cases involved children between six and fifteen and among this more boys were reported to be sexually abused.

This raises a critical question: what is the real reason behind this rise? Can six- or eight-year-old girls be blamed for their clothing, for not observing pardah, or for being alone?

Before offering such reasons, pause for a moment and reflect: by justifying a crime with these silly reasons, you are effectively refusing to recognize it as a crime at all.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)