In a session that ratified a sweeping amendment, the National Assembly approved the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2025, for Islamabad. At a time when headlines focused on power and prerogatives, lawmakers took the less glamorous path of protecting the vulnerable. That deserves recognition.
The bill, tabled by PPP’s Sharmila Farooqi and modelled on a similar law passed by Sindh, extends the capital’s first protection framework to cover any household member in a domestic relationship. It explicitly forbids physical, emotional, psychological, sexual and economic violence. Furthermore, it covers spouses, parents, adoptive parents and other family members living in a shared home. The law’s breadth is notable, and in this moment, that is significant.
Still, we must register how easily this work was almost lost in the shuffle. As loud machines of high politics roared, hardly anyone noticed the move to protect one of the most basic rights: safety at home.
And the bill comes at a time when the numbers tell a brutal story. Reports show over 32,000 gender-based violence cases nationwide in 2024 alone: more than 5,300 rapes, more than 2,200 domestic-violence incidents. Conviction rates remain abysmally low. Across Punjab’s 1,167 reported abuse cases, only three resulted in a conviction. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, zero convictions were recorded in hundreds of cases.
So yes, let us appreciate the lawmakers. They got the bill passed. But let us not confuse passage with victory because provinces that account for most of these cases remain outside its reach. And a law on the books, if unimplemented, risks gathering dust. Shelters are scarce, counselling services are minimal, and specially dedicated fast-track courts for domestic violence are virtually absent from the public eye. The law matters, but what matters more is what happens after.
Passing this under-discussed bill reminds us how skewed our priorities have become. The violence rippling through every city and community is a national crisis needing every leader’s attention, not simply as another item on the agenda, but as a defining test of state legitimacy.
Now, it is up to all of us. Not just to cheer the bill’s passage. To press for funding, monitor implementation, demand open debates on marital rape, on divorce rights, on women’s economic independence, and on dismantling patriarchal taboos. Domestic violence victims stand equal before our Constitution. If we truly believe in the duty to protect life and dignity, then no such law should be allowed to sit unused while victims wait in silence. *