SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF BOYS IN SOUTH ASIA A ...

institution where facilities are known to be available for prostitution” 359 as well as public
soliciting. Thus the Ordinance effectively prohibits prostitution on the street, in brothels and
in homes. Regarding exploitation of children through prostitution, the Ordinance is primarily
punitive rather than protective. It does not define child prostitution or punish perpetrators of
prostitution with children as a separate offence. Moreover, the Ordinance does not apply to
men and boys, only ‘females’. Procuring a person for prostitution, importing a person for
prostitution and keeping a person in a brothel are crimes only when inflicted upon women and
girls. While criminalizing prostitution, the law makes no distinction between adults and
children with the exception of “causing, encouraging or abetting the prostitution of a girl
under 16”. In the remainder of the Prostitution Ordinance, the term ‘females’ rather than
‘women’ criminalizes prostitution of girls of any age. It also criminalizes any person over 18,
including a husband or parent, who lives with a prostitute, as that person is considered to live
off the earnings of prostitution.
Boys working in prostitution may be punished but are usually not protected by the Hudood
Ordinance, which criminalizes sex outside marriage and imposes penalties on both children
and adults. For protection of children from sexual exploitation, the Hudood Ordinance
prescribes penalties for a person who “sells, lets to hire, or otherwise disposes of any person”
as well as for a person who “buys, hires or otherwise obtains possession of a person … for the
purpose of prostitution or illicit intercourse”. 360 However, the accompanying explanations in
the Ordinance state that this only applies to offences against women, excluding boys. As the
Hudood Ordinance does not define ‘woman’ or ‘girl’, it is not clear if the term ‘women’
includes girls. The Pakistan Penal Code reinforces the punishment of boys working in
prostitution by outlawing ‘unnatural offences…against the order of nature’. 361 While this
section could possibly protect sexually exploited boys, it is more often used to criminalize
them.
7.2.4.2 Exploitation in travel and tourism
Pakistan has no legislation addressing sexual exploitation in travel and tourism, nor any
extraterritorial agreements with other countries for prosecution of internationals who abuse
Pakistani children.
7.2.4.3 Trafficking for sexual exploitation
The Constitution of Pakistan prohibits “slavery, forced labour and trafficking in human
beings” in its articles 11(1) and 11(2) and it is also stated that a child below the age of 14
shall not be involved in any kind of hazardous employment (article 11.3).
However, most trafficking cases are tried under the Prevention and Control of Human
Trafficking Ordinance 2002 362 or the Emigration Ordinance, which impose limited
359 Pakistan Suppression of Prostitution Ordinance 1961, , accessed 16
March 2010.
360
Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance 1979.
361
Pakistan Penal Code 1860.
362
, accessed 16 March 2010.
116