LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday expressed serious concern over the failure of police to recover a large number of abducted girls.

Chief Justice Aalia Neelum, while hearing a petition filed by Salma Bibi regarding the recovery of her daughter Muqaddas Bibi, voiced dissatisfaction over the police report. IGP Abdul Karim and other senior officers also appeared before the court.

During the hearing, the IGP informed the court that the report covering the past five years had been compiled on court directions. According to the report, from 2021 to 2025, as many as 105,244 cases of women abduction were registered, while a total of 105,571 women were reported abducted.

The report stated that 70,773 cases were registered under Section 365-B and 34,471 under Section 496-A. It further revealed that 80,706 cases were dismissed based on the statements of the victims, while challan in 20,613 cases were submitted to courts. At present, 3,864 cases are under investigation.

CJ alarmed at large number of kidnappings with no trace

The IG told the court that 612 women had been recovered so far, whereas 3,258 were still missing.

Expressing concern over the figures, the chief justice questioned why such a large number of girls could not be recovered.

In response, the IG cited administrative challenges. However, the court rejected the explanation, stating that resolving administrative issues was the polices’ own responsibility and negligence in this regard was unacceptable.

The IG further informed the court that a mechanism had been devised to tackle rising abduction cases, including the formation of a special team headed by the Additional IG, along with active units at provincial, divisional and district levels.

The court ordered an immediate review of investigation officers who failed to recover abducted girls and directed that those responsible be identified and proceeded against. It also instructed that officers with poor performance should not be assigned investigation duties in the future.

The court directed the special team to submit a comprehensive report at the next hearing.

The petitioner, Salma Bibi, had approached the high court in 2022 for the recovery of her daughter.

The hearing was adjourned till June 1, with the court granting exemption from personal appearance to the IG Punjab for the next date.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2026