Horror of child pornography

Another horrifying incident has come out of the hotbed of child exploitation, Muzaffargarh. A young boy, sent to collect his brother's unpaid wages, was sexually assaulted and filmed by a man his family once relied on for employment. This case, shocking as it is, comes on the heels of an even darker international child pornography ring recently exposed in the same district.

That Muzaffargarh has surfaced twice in a matter of weeks for crimes of such depravity is no coincidence. It is a reflection of a deep rot, one that festers in the absence of credible child protection mechanisms. In these rural stretches of Punjab, where trust is easily exploited and oversight is minimal, predators thrive. And yet, the state continues to respond with the same laxity.

Pakistan does not lack the legal framework to prosecute such crimes. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2016 and the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act, 2020 are both designed to deter child sexual abuse and child pornography, with penalties ranging from long-term imprisonment to capital punishment. But laws alone are no match for a system that is broken at every level — from undertrained police officers to overburdened courts, from unmonitored cyber spaces to non-functional child protection units. Predators are emboldened when they know investigations will be half-hearted and the justice system is too slow to deliver.

What is needed now is not another press conference, but a national-level response. The FlA's cybercrime wing must be strengthened with advanced tools, training and jurisdiction to act swiftly across provinces.

Child protection bureaus must be activated in every district with the authority to intervene and the funding to support victims. Police must be trained in both handling abuse cases and managing digital trails of child pornography. Most importantly, the harshest punishment should be meted out to perpetrators as a form of deterrence.