Lahore, October 9, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
More than 500 cases involving missing girls are pending in Pakistan’s Punjab province, Inspector General of Police Rao Abdul Karim told the Lahore High Court, which expressed concern over police negligence and directed the police chief to submit a report on efforts to trace the missing girls.
Karim appeared before the court as Chief Justice Aalia Neelum heard a petition filed by Sadia Hussain, a resident of Faisalabad, seeking the recovery of her daughter, Dawn reported.
During the hearing, Neelum asked the IGP how many cases involving missing girls were pending in the province. Karim put the number at more than 500 and said special committees had been constituted to handle cases involving women and children.
The chief justice criticised the police for appearing to act only after courts intervened. She cited the case of a girl who had remained missing for two years and was traced only after the court took notice of the matter.
Expressing displeasure over the handling of cases involving women, Neelum directed the IGP to submit a report detailing the steps being taken to locate the missing girls.
Meanwhile, Voice of Pakistan Minority (VOPM), a minority rights organisation, raised concerns over reported sexual offences in Lahore. According to the organisation, the city recorded 498 rape cases and 36 gang-rape cases during the first eight months of 2026.
VOPM said the figures amounted to an average of more than four reported sexual offences a day. It added that including reported sodomy cases brought the total number of sexual-offence cases to 1,108 over the eight-month period.
“No neighbourhood is spared. No community is immune,” the organisation said, warning that sexual violence was being reported across affluent neighbourhoods, crowded markets and residential areas.
The organisation also stressed that registered cases reflected only part of the scale of the problem. Citing repeated warnings from rights groups, it said formal police complaints, including registered first information reports (FIRs), represented only a fraction of the offences actually committed.
VOPM attributed underreporting to social stigma, shame, family pressure, distrust of police and fears of social ostracism. It said victims were often discouraged from reporting crimes, pressured into silence or blamed for what had happened to them.
An increase in registered cases, the organisation noted, could reflect both a rise in crimes and a greater willingness among victims to report them. However, it said the system continued to fail many people who came forward.
The police report sought by the Lahore High Court is expected to detail the measures being taken to trace the more than 500 missing girls whose cases remain pending in Punjab.
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