Is anti-trafficking Act 2018; A toothless law?

Amjad Makhdoom

As a serious issue, the “Trafficking in Person” does no longer require any introduction since it has already been criminalized as an offence under section 3 of the PTIP (Prevention of Trafficking In Person) Act 2018, yet it has been rendered as a toothless law that has miserably failed to bring any significant change in Pakistan’s society.

As a Western issue, the “Anti Trafficking” problem seems quite relevant to Pakistan’s society since it has significantly eroded its society in term of “Bonded labour”, “Forced marriages” and even forced labour and forced prostitution as a modern slavery.

The aforesaid PTIP-Act 2018 and PSMA-Prevention of Smuggling of Migrants Act 2018 have been enacted to curb the alleged menace, resulting from human trafficking and smuggling of migrants. It is worthy to note that the aforesaid PTIP Act has successfully brought to the courts the pressing issue of human trafficking with its above noted certain consequential cases like forced labour, forced marriages, bonded labour and smuggling of migrants.

However, apart from its aforesaid initial value, the existing law of PTIP Act 2018 can then be seen losing its hold on the cases so brought to the dock. In fact, whatever might be the reason for not successfully dealing with the case and whatever might be the factors accountable for this failure, the existing law of this PTIP Act-2018 has materially lost its “deterrent value” that is often taken in consideration for curbing a criminal activity.

An international conference is being held in Pakistan on “Combating Trafficking and Boded Labour of Pakistani Women and Girls”. It is high time to question why and how the existing law of PTIP Act-2018 has been rendered a toothless law, what are those factors accountable for this failure, and how would it be rejuvenated to bring material fruits to Pakistan’s society.