In the conservative Muslim nation, where the birth of children outside of marriage is condemned and adultery is a crime punishable by death under strict interpretations of Islamic law, infanticide is a crime on the rise.
The infanticide figures are collected only from Pakistan’s main cities, leaving out huge swathes of the largely rural nation.
The death toll is far worse among girls, with nine out of ten dead babies the charity finds being female.
Girls are seen by many Pakistanis as a greater economic burden as most women are not permitted to work and are considered to be the financial responsibility of their fathers, and later their husbands.
A Pakistani family can be forced to raise more than one million rupees (11,700 dollars) to marry their daughter off.
Abortion is prohibited in Pakistan, except when the mother’s life is at risk from her pregnancy, but advocates say that legalisation would reduce infanticide and save mothers from potentially fatal back-street terminations.
The majority of police stations do not register cases of infanticide, let alone launch investigations into them.
Crimes of infanticide are rarely prosecuted.
Earlier: napaki.tumblr.com
Twitter handle: @napaki
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