The publication of the National Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Crime Report 2021–2025 by the Peace & Justice Network (PJN) Pakistan under its National Data for Justice Development (D4JD) Initiative presents a staggering figure: 237,216 reported crimes against women and girls over five years. However, evaluating this dataset solely through the lens of headline numbers risks misinterpreting the state of gender justice in Pakistan. A fundamental law of crime statistics in developing justice systems is that “reported crime is not the same as the actual prevalence of violence.”
High reporting figures often signify institutional access, higher literacy, and functional police mechanisms, while low figures frequently mask severe structural suppression, geographical isolation, and deep-seated social stigma. Deciphering the true picture of gender-based violence across Pakistan requires analyzing what these provincial statistics reveal and what they obscure.
The Punjab Disparity: Access vs. Incidence
Punjab accounts for an overwhelming 82.5% (195,787 cases) of all police-reported GBV crimes in Pakistan, despite representing 51.5% of the national population. Moreover, the report documents that over 90% of all nationally registered cases of gang rape, custodial sexual violence, and incest were recorded within Punjab.
Rather than indicating that Punjab may be inherently vastly more unsafe than the rest of the country, this imbalance may highlight stark regional differences in legal literacy and policing infrastructure. Higher literacy, greater socioeconomic participation, specialized police desks, and relatively accessible formal reporting channels encourage survivors in Punjab to step forward. Conversely, where institutional trust or physical access is absent, heinous crimes simply vanish from official ledgers.
Sindh: Transparency and the Abduction Crisis
Sindh recorded 25,107 GBV cases (10.6% of the national total) over the five-year period. A critical pattern in Sindh is the total dominance of kidnapping and abduction, which accounts for 19,289 cases, roughly 77% of all reported gender crimes in the province.
Sindh sets a vital national benchmark in data governance: it remains the only province where crime data is publicly accessible by specific category and geographic location on the official Sindh Police website. This structural transparency provides an essential foundation for evidence-based policymaking. However, the overwhelming concentration of cases in urban abduction reports points to a broader systemic challenge: domestic abuse and honor-based crimes in rural upper Sindh remain heavily suppressed by tribal dispute-resolution mechanisms that bypass police stations entirely.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Fatal Outcomes and Uncounted Silences
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) reported 10,210 cases (4.3% of national reported crimes against a 16.5% population share). Behind this relatively low reporting rate lies an alarming situation. Out of 2,334 total domestic violence cases reported to police, 1,197 resulted in murder.
When domestic abuse is reported in KP, it frequently involves a fatal outcome. Non-fatal beatings and psychological coercive control are rarely registered due to pervasive social norms that treat domestic violence as a private family matter.
Balochistan, AJK, and Gilgit-Baltistan: The Institutional Void
In Balochistan (3,108 cases), Gilgit-Baltistan (161 cases), and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (1,572 cases), reported crime figures reflect severe institutional and geographical barriers.
- Balochistan’s Jurisdictional Split: Formal policing traditionally covers only “A-Areas” (10% of the province’s landmass, primarily urban centers), while “B-Areas” (90% rural/tribal) have been governed by the Levies Force. The Levies have only recently begun to merge with the police.
- Extreme Underreporting in GB and AJK: In Gilgit-Baltistan, recording just 7 rape cases over five years may point to extreme underreporting driven by tight-knit communal structures, and geographic isolation, rather than an absence of violence. In AJK, kidnapping and abduction dominate the dataset (1,474 out of 1,572 cases), while domestic physical violence remains almost entirely unrecorded in police registers.
Islamabad: Alternative Forums and Administrative Diversion
Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) recorded 1,271 cases. ICT presents a distinct model: while police registers reflect lower workplace harassment figures (7 cases reported to police), working women in the capital frequently bypass police stations entirely. Instead, they seek redress through institutional channels such as the Federal Ombudsperson Secretariat for Protection Against Harassment (FOSPAH). This highlights the need for integrated data-sharing between administrative ombudspersons and formal law enforcement to capture the true scale of gender crimes.
Building the National Gender Justice Safety Net
Pakistan has introduced landmark pro-women legislation over the last decade, including the Anti-Rape Act 2021 and provincial domestic violence laws. However, the implementation gap between legislative intent and district-level execution remains the primary bottleneck.
To bridge this divide, state institutions must adopt the report’s central roadmap: establishing a National Gender Justice Safety Net. Key priorities highlighted include:
- Decentralizing Services: Moving specialized legal aid, forensic medical support, and survivor protection out of provincial capitals and directly into district-level health and police centers.
- Integrated National GBV Data System: Unifying police, judicial, health sector, helpline, and ombudsperson records into a single, anonymized national registry to eliminate reporting blind spots.
- Survivor-Centered Policing: Expanding the presence of trained female police officers and investigators across all district stations to build institutional trust.
Police statistics are a mirror reflecting how accessible a justice system is to its most vulnerable citizens. Until every woman, whether in urban Lahore, rural Sindh, or remote Gilgit-Baltistan, can safely access justice without fear or social penalty, low reporting numbers must be recognized for what they truly are: a call for deeper structural reform.