Punjab accounted for 99.2 percent of registered gang-rape cases in Pakistan between 2021 and mid-2026, according to a Dawn EOS investigation based on data from Pakistan's Ministry of Law and Justice.
Across the four provinces, 47,452 cases were registered over the period across five categories of rape-related offences. Punjab accounted for 89.7 percent of all registered rape cases in the country.
In Punjab, 29,555 gang-rape cases were registered, making up 69.4 percent of the province's caseload. That figure is 6.6 times Punjab's 4,494 registered single-perpetrator rape cases. Every other province showed the reverse pattern: Sindh recorded 4.3 single-perpetrator cases for every gang-rape case, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 51 and Balochistan 47.
Convictions were rare. In Punjab, courts convicted 639 accused persons across all categories and acquitted 12,741, about 20 acquittals for every conviction. In gang-rape cases specifically, the ratio was 26 acquittals for every conviction, measured by number of accused persons rather than cases. Even in the oldest full-year figures, 2022 and 2023, gang-rape cases saw 194 convictions against 4,586 acquittals. Punjab also cancelled 9,155 rape cases, 21.5 percent of its total, including 6,995 gang-rape cases.
The investigation notes that these are registered cases only, not all incidents that occurred, and that registration and classification practices differ sharply between provinces. In Punjab's first four weeks of reporting after the Anti-Rape Act took effect, from December 4 to 31, 2021, the province recorded 1,011 gang-rape cases against 15 single-perpetrator cases.
The Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act, 2021 promised specialised courts delivering verdicts within four months. The investigation finds that five years on, implementation gaps remain, with cases stalling at investigation, prosecution and trial stages.