News Desk
Child trafficking in Pakistan remains rampant despite strong legal safeguards, largely due to weak protection and regulatory oversight, which have further deteriorated as a result of the involvement of some NGOs and trusts mandated to work for children’s welfare in such malpractices.
Recently, Dr Mubina Cassum Agboatwala, chairperson of Karachi-based Health-Oriented Preventive Education (HOPE), was arrested on charges of child smuggling. In June 2025, a woman was caught at Karachi airport while smuggling an infant to Mozambique, leading to the arrest of two female doctors.
Interestingly, the HOPE was not registered to run an orphanage and adoption agency. So does the Sarim Burney Trust International. In 2024, a Pakistani social activist named Sarim Burney was arrested in connection with “child trafficking by way of illegal adoption” to the US, exposing the shocking business of connecting welfare activity to illegal child transfer.
“The Sarim Burney Trust International facilitated in obtaining the Guardianship certificate of the minors/children by misrepresentation and misdeclaration before the concerned Court while changing the names of the minors as well as taking the false declaration that the children were found abandoned before the gate of the Trust,” reads a court document.
Pakistan’s National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) said the protection and rehabilitation services, including by NGOs, for victims were inadequate due to a lack of visibility and accountability. “Pakistan’s alternative care system exhibits multiple structural and procedural deficiencies,” it said. “Informal kinship care, though widely practised, remains entirely unregulated and unsupported. Children placed through informal channels remain outside the state’s monitoring frameworks, making them highly vulnerable to exploitation, neglect, and abuse.”
The number of trafficking victims from Pakistan increased by a whopping 28 percent year-on-year to 37,303, which included 1,046 children, according to the US Department of State’s 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report. “The majority of children working in the streets of Pakistan are subjected to forced begging and are vulnerable to sexual exploitation, including sex trafficking,” it said “The high rate of out-of-school children and the lack of access to schools leave many children vulnerable to trafficking throughout the country.”
The US Department report expressed concern over the plight of child protection in Pakistan, highlighting the government’s failure to provide a victim assistance mechanism, including a lack of shelter and services. “Due to the consistent lack of law enforcement efforts against those who exploit children who are homeless, traffickers operate openly and with impunity. Corruption and official complicity remained significant concerns. The government reported investigating eight officials for alleged complicity in potential trafficking-related crimes,” it said.
Despite the huge number of trafficking cases, the number of arrests remained very low, and the number of convictions was even lower. In 2022, the number of people prosecuted was 1,104, while those convicted were just 105, as per the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2024, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
UNICEF criticised the Islamabad government for a negligent attitude, leading to poor child protection in the country. “Nearly 30 years after Pakistan ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), no public coordinated child protection case management and referral system, as aligned with international standards, has been established.”
Pakistan has legal tools such as the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2016 and the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, which criminalise trafficking and aim to protect children and minors. The Prevention of Electronic Crime Act complement the objectives of preventing kidnapping, abduction, or trafficking of minors. Moreover, it has ratified the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime.
“Pakistan is an over-legislated country where some of the best and most modern laws have been made, but the implementation is almost non-existent,” said legal expert Barrister Ali Tahir.
More importantly, Article 11 of Pakistan’s constitution prohibits human trafficking, among others. There is a strong legal framework and mechanism for prevention, and a platform for trans-national cooperation and provision of strict penalty. But all on paper; the ground reality is horrific. “Despite these legal tools, the issue remains severely neglected in certain areas,” said social activist Hani Wahid Baloch, who highlighted how poor girls as young as 14 were trafficked to Oman under the guise of marriage. “These children lose not only their safety and innocence, but their entire sense of identity and belonging.”
