PESHAWAR: Around 600 child rape cases have been reported in the last two years in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with only 10 culprits (2%) of them getting punishments. Among the victims, 10 minors were reported to be murdered.

As per the data shared by provincial home department under KP’s Right To Information Act 2013, in 2019, 294 rape and abuse cases of minors were reported and only five people were convicted, while 20 were acquitted. Similarly in 2020, more than 260 cases were registered with five convictions, 19 acquittals and 311 arrests.

According to provincial Law Minister Sultan Mohammad Khan, the reasons behind the low conviction rate of rape cases related to women and children, are social traditions and customs like the involvement of local jirgas that help these culprits in getting away with such crimes; and lack of proper laws related to the cases.

However, the role of provincial cabinet in getting amendments (leading to strict punishments) approved from assembly, has also been criticized by the Speaker KP Assembly, Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani.

According to the statistics shared by the home department among the victims of child abuse, 68% were male kids while 32% were female kids. Astonishingly, 60% of the suspects were reported to be under the age of 18 years. Imran Takkar, a social activist has advised the government to take strict measure against such incidents and don’t let local jirgas decide the cases which eventually lead to arbitration and justice finds no place.