Violence, including but not limited to sexual assault, rape, murder, acid attacks, domestic violence, and forced marriage is endemic throughout Pakistan. Human Rights defenders have estimated over 1000 women are killed in so-called “honor-killings” every year. On average, in Pakistan, eight children are abused every day in one form or another; with girls being the most highly disliked, seeing as 51 percent of the victims are girls and 49 percent boys. Pakistan must take intense and immediate steps to prevent violence in its community.
Economic empowerment, partnership, coordination plans, and ending violence against women (EVAW) allow us to hope that we can stop domestic violence in Pakistan.
The community of Lahore has taken steps to establish effective mechanisms to ensure prevention and adequate response to abuse, neglect, and exploitation despite age. Students at a Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) seminar called for an end to domestic violence. The purpose of the seminar was to uncover and highlight issues regarding legislation on women’s protection and women’s empowerment.
According to Asif Saeed Khosa, the special courts would allow victims to speak out without fear of retaliation in the conservative Muslim country, where domestic violence is often hushed and described as a taboo topic.
At the institutional level, conflict-prevention centers need to be established in all of Pakistan’s conflict zones. These centers, equipped with technical expertise and having knowledge about conflict zones, would play a vital role in providing information and data about the possible and often probable outbreak of conflict.
Moreover, preventive action can be taken at the educational level by empowering the young people of Pakistan with knowledge about conflict and how it can be lessened, if not prevented entirely. On the societal level, civil society organizations and political parties could work together to promote awareness about the need for an effective preventative action plan.
At the state level, the capacity of the police, rangers, and intelligence agencies, needs to be enhanced so that they can understand the causes for a potential conflict and work for its timely prevention.
Despite the existence of a strong law on paper, most victims of domestic violence find themselves without protection. This law should ultimately be enforced with consequences of higher severity.