19/05/2026
A case of sexual assault in Sindh takes, on average, 14.8 months to reach a verdict. That is 22 hearings. 14 adjournments. One survivor, asked to show up to every single one.
The fastest part of the process is the part she controls. It now takes about 5 days, on average, for an FIR to be registered after a case of sexual assault is reported. Four years ago, it took 39. That is real, measurable change.
Everything after that, the survivor waits for.
The investigation, which the law gives 14 days to complete, now takes nearly 2 months. The trial, which the Anti-Rape Act 2021 mandates be concluded in 4 months, takes over 9. The procedural stages between FIR and verdict consume 72% of the case timeline.
When we looked at why hearings were being adjourned, the survivor was almost never the reason. 38% of adjournments in our case sample were because the investigating officer did not appear. 20% were because a prosecution witness did not. The system she is being asked to wait for is the one that keeps her waiting.
Hiba was eight years old when her case began. She gave her statement three times across three courts before the conviction was upheld. Hareem's case ran through a defective investigation, a delayed trial, and a defence built on every procedural gap the system had created
They stayed. Most survivors do not and the data on retraction tells you why.
A case that takes 14.8 months is not a slow case. It is a case that has asked a survivor to outlast the system.
Full study in bio. All survivor names have been changed.
