If you are in immediate danger, call 15. If you have been assaulted, seek medical attention as soon as you can — for your health first, and because the medical examination is also the evidence.

This page explains how the process works and what protections the law provides. It is general information, written for someone deciding what to do next. Nothing here requires you to have decided whether to report.

The first hours

Medical care comes before anything else. Beyond that, these steps preserve what a case later depends on:

  • Do not wash, change or discard clothing if you can avoid it. Place clothing in a paper bag rather than plastic
  • Seek a medico-legal examination as soon as possible. The MLO examination is the central piece of evidence, and its value diminishes quickly
  • Preserve your phone — messages, call logs, location data — and do not delete the conversation with the person responsible
  • Tell someone you trust and note when you told them. A person you disclosed to early can give evidence of that
  • Write down what happened, dated, in your own words, while it is fresh

None of this obliges you to report. It preserves the option.

The medico-legal examination

This is conducted at a designated facility by a medico-legal officer, and a woman is entitled to be examined by a female medical officer.

Two points worth knowing.

The examination should be conducted with your informed consent, and you are entitled to have a person of your choosing present for support.

The so-called "two-finger test" has been held unlawful and without any medical or forensic value by the superior courts of Pakistan, and it must not be performed. Statements about a complainant's sexual history are equally irrelevant to whether an offence occurred.

If you are told otherwise, say so, and take advice.

Registering the case

A sexual offence is a cognisable offence and the police are required to register an FIR. It can be recorded by a female police officer, and there are investigation units designated for these cases.

Practical points:

  • You are entitled to a free copy of the FIR. Insist on it
  • The FIR should record what happened in your own account, in sequence. Read it before signing, and do not sign a version that is not what you said
  • If the police refuse to register, that refusal can be pursued — through the senior officer in the district, by application to the Justice of the Peace, and if necessary by petition to the High Court. See how to get an FIR registered
  • Delay in reporting is often raised by the defence, but it is understood by the courts that these offences are frequently not reported immediately. Delay does not prevent a case; explain it rather than concealing it

The protections the law provides

Pakistani law, including reforms introduced by the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act 2021, provides for:

  • Special courts for these offences, intended to conclude trials expeditiously
  • In camera proceedings — the trial is not held in open court
  • Protection of the complainant's identity, with restrictions on publication
  • Provision for evidence to be given without direct confrontation in appropriate cases, including through screens or video link
  • Anti-rape crisis cells intended to coordinate the medical, police and prosecution response
  • Legal representation, and support through the process
  • Confidentiality obligations on those involved in the investigation

These protections exist. They are not always applied unless someone asks for them, which is one of the practical reasons to have a lawyer involved early.

If the complainant is a child

Additional protections apply, and the matter should be dealt with by officers and through procedures designated for children, with the child's evidence taken in a manner that avoids further harm. Take advice immediately on how the complaint is framed and how the evidence is recorded. See also juvenile justice where a child is on the other side of a case.

Harassment that is not a criminal offence

Not every unwanted conduct is a criminal offence, and where the conduct occurred at work, a separate and often more accessible route exists — the statutory harassment complaint to an Inquiry Committee or directly to the Ombudsperson, which does not require you to fund litigation. See workplace harassment in Pakistan.

Where conduct is online — image-based abuse, blackmail, threats to publish — that engages the electronic crimes framework, with complaints to the FIA Cyber Crime Wing. Do not pay a blackmailer, and do not delete the conversation. See online fraud, blackmail and harassment.

What the process will involve

Being honest about this matters more than reassurance.

Cases take time. You will be required to give evidence and to be cross-examined, though the protections above are intended to make that less harmful. The prosecution is conducted by the state, but a complainant is not without a voice in it, and having your own counsel involved makes a practical difference to how the investigation and trial proceed.

You may also be pressed to compromise, sometimes by your own family. Whether that is even legally possible depends on the offence, and it is a decision that should not be taken under pressure or without advice.

How the firm can help

We advise complainants on the process, ensure the medico-legal and investigative steps are properly taken, pursue registration where the police decline, and represent complainants through investigation and trial — including insisting on the protections the law provides.

We also defend those accused, where the same procedural standards apply from the other side.

These matters are handled with complete discretion. A first conversation can be had before you have decided whether to report, and it does not commit you to anything.

Telephone the chambers on (021) 3263 7006, or contact the firm if you would prefer to write. If you are in immediate danger, call 15 first.