In an entrenched but largely hidden underworld, Pakistan’s sex trade quietly persists behind closed doors. As DESIblitz lays bare in “The Reality of Prostitution in Pakistan,” prostitution in the country is not simply taboo — it is officially illegal, driving the entire industry underground. The article argues that despite laws forbidding “immoral acts,” the trade continues in various forms, from brothels to call girls, and often entwined with coercion, poverty, and systemic marginalisation.
What emerges from the shadows is a deeply fractured terrain. Some women are born into the trade or inherited it through family “management”; many are trafficked or coerced; others enter it willingly, seeing few alternative escape routes from grinding poverty. In brothels, trafficked women are often held captive under control of a pimp or madam; among “call girls,” clients are often arranged through intermediaries who demand a steep share of earnings or enforce monthly contracts. Traditional red-light districts endure, though under constant threat of crackdown or eviction, and much of the sex trade now operates diffusely through private homes, hotels or social networks.
The legal context compounds the vulnerability of sex workers. Prostitution has no legal status in Pakistan. Extramarital sexual relations—categorized under the Hudood Ordinances of 1979—are criminalized, making sex workers liable to persecution under charges of zina (fornication) or related offenses. Meanwhile, sex trafficking is often prosecuted only under ancillary laws, and enforcement is inconsistent. Police corruption and bribery help sustain a climate of impunity and silence.
A 2023 study of South Asian patriarchal dynamics points out that in countries like Pakistan, deeply rooted gender inequality saturates sexual economies, trapping women in cycles of exploitation. A case study of Lahore’s historic red-light zone, Shahi Mohallah, describes how draconian crackdowns have displaced sex workers into the fringes, forcing them into more precarious circumstances and increasing instances of forced prostitution.
Trafficking, especially cross-border, amplifies the risk. In 2019, Pakistani authorities dismantled a prostitution ring that shipped women to China under the guise of marriage — in many cases, the brides were forced into prostitution after arrival. Estimates of how many women were trafficked range from the low hundreds to nearly a thousand, according to human rights activists and official sources. The United States labels Pakistan a “Tier 2” country in its annual Trafficking in Persons report, signaling serious efforts but inadequate results.
Data scarcity remains a chronic issue. While a 2017 UNAIDS report placed the number of sex workers in Pakistan at around 229,441, this figure is widely considered an undercount—particularly as male and transgender sex work is seldom documented. Moreover, child sexual exploitation is a disturbingly persistent blind spot: Pakistan lacks a mandated national reporting system, and official statistics are scant, masking the prevalence of minors in sex networks.
One bright spot is evolving recognition of the intersection of gender, labor exclusion, and marginalization. A recent socioeconomic study highlights that female labour force participation in Pakistan is among the lowest globally, with systemic barriers—harassment, mobility constraints, lack of education, and societal norms—forcing many women into informal, precarious work. For transgender individuals — long shunned and often confined to begging, dancing, or sex work — small interventions offer hope. In Lahore, a culinary school launched a free six-month program for transgender students, offering them a socially respected alternative to survival economies.
The human cost is heavy. Sex workers face not only legal peril but stigma, violence, and precarity. Because of their illicit status, reporting rape, assault, or coercion risks exposing them to arrest for prostitution itself. Many remain trapped in exploitative dependencies, unable to access health care, legal recourse, or social support. In narratives from the field, the voices of sex workers convey despair and resilience in equal measure: the dawning awareness that “immoral act” laws condemn them twice over — once in society’s morality, and again by the state.
For any meaningful reform, experts suggest a multi-pronged path: decriminalization or legal frameworks that protect consensual sex work, social welfare and livelihood alternatives, rehabilitation and exit programs for those coerced, rigorous anti-trafficking enforcement, and the de-stigmatization of sex workers’ basic human rights. Without confronting the root drivers — poverty, gender inequality and institutional corruption — the trade will persist, shifting shape but remaining ever present.
In the end, the flesh economy in Pakistan is not a spectacle of glamour or choice but a stark illustration of social failure: of poverty unaddressed, of gendered violence unsolved, of human lives marginalized in silence.