Pakistan ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in November 1990, making it one of the treaty’s early adopters. In the wake of the Waseem Abbas case, where a 15-year-old orphan was allegedly run over and killed by his employer after trying to leave his job, reminders of how far society remains from guaranteeing basic child rights have resurfaced. His death highlights why the treaty, and, above all, its implementation, needs sustained attention, as the problem lies not in the lack of laws, but in how unevenly provinces apply them.
Pakistan follows a dualist system. This means courts can enforce an international human rights treaty only after incorporating it into domestic law. Otherwise, it mainly carries weight through periodic reports to the UN. Children’s protection therefore rests on domestic law, starting with the Constitution: Article 11(3) bars children under 14 from factories, mines, and other hazardous work; Article 25(3) permits special provisions for children; and Article 25A guarantees free and compulsory education for children aged five to sixteen. Below it sits the National Commission on the Rights of the Child Act, 2017, which created a statutory body to promote, protect, and fulfil children’s rights. So, while these protections exist on paper, their impact depends entirely on practice.
The gap between promise and practice begins with a cohesive structure. After the 18th Amendment, child protection became a provincial subject while treaty obligations remained federal, a division Pakistan itself acknowledges in its 2025 reply to the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Delivery of the Convention’s rights therefore depends on provincial legislatures and departments. In January 2026, the UN Committee praised Pakistan’s protective measures and its efforts to bring the Convention into national law, while also pressing for stronger implementation. That implementation gap becomes particularly clear in three key areas: education, child marriage, and child labour.
The Education Gap
Education is the clearest example of this gap. Under Article 25A, every child aged five to sixteen is guaranteed free and compulsory schooling. But since the 18th Amendment, these rights have been translated into domestic law through five separate legislative frameworks: the ICT Free and Compulsory Education Act 2012, the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014, the Sindh Rights of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2013, the Balochistan Compulsory Education Act 2014, and the KP Free Compulsory Primary and Secondary Education Act, 2017.
Despite this legislative net, an estimated 25.1 million children remain out of school, placing Pakistan among the world’s highest totals. Systemic underfunding deepens the crisis, as public spending on education has fallen to a provisional 0.8% of GDP. The law also contradicts itself: the minimum working age of 14 sits below the compulsory education age of 16, which can push children out of school early. This two-year gap encourages children turning 14 to legally enter the workforce before completing their mandatory education, thereby institutionalising premature school dropouts.
The Patchwork of Child Marriage Laws
The second major area this implementation gap manifests is child marriage, where protection depends on where a girl lives and how much her family earns. Sindh set the minimum legal age of marriage at 18 in 2013, followed by Islamabad Capital Territory and Balochistan in 2025. Punjab did the same in 2026, but Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remains the only province that still allows girls to marry at 16.
Courts further add to the problem. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly raised concerns about court rulings, including judgments from the Lahore and Islamabad High Courts, that upheld the marriages of 15-year-old girls on grounds of puberty. According to UNICEF, 18 per cent of women in Pakistan were married before 18, but the rate is 34.1 per cent in the poorest households compared with 7.3 per cent in the richest. Gallup Pakistan likewise finds that nearly one in ten people aged 15 to 19 are married, rising to about 15 per cent among girls. A girl’s protection therefore depends on her province, her family’s income, and whether she stays in school.
Child Labour and the Enforcement Crisis
Child labour, the third area exposing the gap, is arguably the weakest link, and it is where Waseem Abbas’s story belongs. About 8.6 million children are engaged in child labour in Pakistan, and the UNICEF–NCHR survey behind that figure probably undercounts, because household surveys often miss child domestic workers living inside their employers’ homes.
Laws differ across the country: Punjab sets the minimum age for employment at 15; Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at 14; Balochistan under its own 2021 Act; and Islamabad under the 1991 Act, as amended in 2022, with a 2025 bill to replace it. Beyond such disparities, enforcement remains thin. Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan together employed fewer than 300 inspectors in 2020, far below the benchmark recommended by the International Labour Organization. Inspectors also said they avoided sites owned by influential people. The consequences of this are shown through the Waseem Abbas case, where the Labour Department and police both moved against the contractor only after he was dead, a stark reflection of a system that acts only after a tragedy occurs.
Moving Forward
Turning these promises into protection requires three steps:
- Align the working age with the school-leaving age, ensuring no child can lawfully work before finishing compulsory education.
- Raise the legal age of marriage to 18 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and strictly enforce the set age across every other province.
- Provide labour departments with adequate funding, staff, and political backing to inspect workplaces, including private apprenticeships, and hold violators accountable.
Most importantly, the federal government cannot continue to treat provincial autonomy after the 18th Amendment as a reason to abandon international commitments. Pakistan ratified the Convention as a single nation, so until every province converts those promises into enforceable local law, the treaty will remain a commitment on paper, and children like Waseem Abbas will keep paying the price.