Arrested Within Hours, Convicted Rarely: Lahore’s Rape Cases

LAHORE: Lahore police arrested four men in three cases of sexual violence and harassment against women reported on Monday. In the most serious, two men allegedly drugged a married couple who had come to one of them for temporary accommodation, then raped the wife while both were unconscious. In Sundar, a man allegedly raped a young woman after threatening her. In Harbanspura, a man was arrested for harassing a young woman on her daily route to work.

In each case, police emphasised speed with which suspects traced within hours, FIRs registered immediately. That is a genuine improvement on a period when survivors routinely struggled to get a case registered at all. But registration and arrest are the start of a rape case, not its outcome.

Punjab recorded 4,641 rape cases in 2024 and a conviction rate of 0.4 percent, according to the Sustainable Social Development Organisation. Nationally, Sahil counted 877 rapes among 7,071 gender-based violence cases in 2025, with 78 percent of all such cases reported from Punjab.

According to DIG Operations Faisal Kamran, a man and his wife went to a suspect named Salman looking for temporary accommodation. Salman invited them to dinner at his flat. After the meal, both husband and wife lost consciousness. Police say Salman and a second suspect, Javed, then raped the woman. Civil Lines police registered a case on the husband’s application and arrested both men, who have been handed to the investigation wing.

The case matters beyond its details. It combines three features that make prosecution hardest: the survivor was unconscious and may have limited recall; the offence took place in a private flat with no independent witnesses; and the substance used may clear the body quickly. Whether a toxicology sample was taken, and how soon, is likely to decide the case. Police have not said.

In Sundar, police say a suspect named Ali Hassan raped a young woman after frightening her into compliance. SP Saddar said Sundar police registered the case as soon as the complaint arrived and traced and arrested the suspect within a few hours.

In Harbanspura, SHO Mohsin Shehzad, acting on SP Cantt’s instructions, responded to a 15 call and arrested a suspect named Irfan for allegedly harassing and molesting a young woman on her way to work. The FIR was registered on the complaint of her mother. Police officials said action against those who harass women would continue.

None of these was a random attack by a stranger in a dark street. The Civil Lines suspects allegedly exploited the vulnerability of a couple who needed somewhere to stay. The Sundar suspect relied on fear. The Harbanspura suspect targeted a woman on a route he knew she took. That pattern runs through earlier reports: the Sabzazar gang rape, a rickshaw driver accused of assaulting a passenger, and a man posing as a spiritual healer in Kot Lakhpat all involved an abuse of access or trust.

Sahil’s 2025 data on violence against women points the same direction showing that 32 percent of rapists were acquaintances, 18 percent strangers and 12 percent husbands, with the perpetrator unidentified in 20 percent of cases.

Sahil recorded 7,071 cases of gender-based violence nationally in 2025, a 34 percent rise, including 877 rapes, 316 harassment cases and 1,345 kidnappings. Punjab accounted for 78 percent. In the first half of 2026, Sahil’s six-monthly report counted 3,172 gender-based violence cases, including 280 rapes.

Those are press-monitoring figures and undercount by design. Police data are larger. The Sustainable Social Development Organisation, working from official records, counted 5,339 reported rape cases across Pakistan in 2024, of which 4,641 were in Punjab.

Reported rape cases and convictions, 2024

Source: Sustainable Social Development Organisation, Mapping Gender-Based Violence in Pakistan 2024, as reported by Accountability Lab Pakistan.

Punjab’s high case count is partly a mark of a system that registers complaints through answered helplines, as the Punjab Safe Cities Authority has made the 15 emergency service a reality. But a 0.4 percent conviction rate means that for every thousand rape cases registered in the province, roughly four end in a conviction. The Harbanspura and Sundar arrests, however swift, enter that pipeline.

Attrition happens at predictable points, such as delayed or incomplete medico-legal examination; forensic samples that are mishandled or never taken; pressure on survivors and families to settle; and long gaps before trial. UNFPA Pakistan estimates that 56 percent of women who experience physical or sexual violence never seek help or tell anyone, which means the cases that reach an FIR are already the minority.

There is evidence that dedicated structures help. Maliha Zia of the Legal Aid Society has said that in Sindh districts where special courts under the anti-rape law are operating, the conviction rate rose from 5 percent in 2020 to 17 percent in 2025. The federal human rights ministry told a parliamentary committee this month that it had expected Punjab’s conviction rate to rise too, and argued for dedicated cells to investigate serious crimes such as rape.

Lahore has the arrest end of the system working. The questions for the Civil Lines, Sundar and Harbanspura cases are the ones police releases never answer – include whether samples were taken in time, whether the survivors have legal support, and whether the cases are still alive in a year. Earlier cases — including four arrests over crimes against women and children on September 9 and the NCCIA’s cyber-harassment arrests — offer a benchmark this paper intends to track.