LAHORE: Prostitution in Pakistan, once relegated to dark alleys and small red-light districts, is fast seeping into many neighbourhoods of the Muslim state’s urban centres and it is time for the government to admit that prostitution is doing a roaring trade within its borders.
An investigative report by the Asia Times, titled Sex in Depth: In Pakistan, a dark trade comes to light, states that the sex industry is bustling in the country, especially in the urban centres of Pakistan.
“The Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi sex scenes are totally changing and it is becoming easier and easier to get a girl for sex. Most hotels provide you with girls on request. Even otherwise, it is easy to find girls prowling the streets after 6 pm, and foreigners could find young women hanging out near Western franchises like McDonalds and KFC. Such women can lead the customer to a nearby short-time accommodation”, the report adds.
The report says that early military governments and religious groups sought to reform areas like the famous Taxali Gate district of Lahore by displacing prostitutes and their families in an effort to reinvent the neighbourhood. “While displacing the prostitutes might have temporarily made the once small red-light district a better neighbourhood for a time, it did little to stop the now dispersed prostitutes from plying their trade”.
Reforming a neighbourhood, it says, instead of offering education and alternative opportunities, appears to be at the core of early failures to curb the nascent sex industry. This mistake would become a prophetic error as now the tendrils of the sex trade have become omnipresent in cities like Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi and Lahore, not to mention towns, villages and rural outposts”.
The report adds that short-time hotels offering hourly rates can be found all over major cities, underscoring the profits being reaped by the sex industry. Pakistan can also accommodate the gay community with prostitution. “Unfortunately, this has also given rise to child prostitution.
As in many societies, access to technology, Internet and mobile phones has facilitated the sex trade in Pakistan. Matchmaking websites serve the male clientele, while providing marketing platform for prostitutes”.
Quoting an aid worker for an Islamabad-based NGO, the report says, quickly after his arrival in the capital, he realised the house next to his own was a Chinese brothel. “Chinese bordellos, often operating as massage parlours or beauty salons, are across Pakistan, even spread even to war-torn locations like Kabul. Chinese in the sex industry have developed a cunning ability to recognise areas where the demand for sex far outstrips the supply”, it says.
One can easily find videos on YouTube that show unabashed red-light areas of Lahore. “The women are available for in-house services for as little as Rs 400 (US$6) to take-away prices ranging Rs 1,000 to 2,000. These prices are mostly for locals, foreigners can indulge in higher prices. Foreigners in Pakistan have no trouble finding companionship and may receive rates similar to locals in downtrodden districts”.
“More upscale areas like Lahore’s Diamond Market cater to well-heeled locals and foreigners. At these places prettier, younger girls push their services for Rs 5,000 to 10,000 for an all-night visit, and the most exceptional can command Rs 20,000 to 40,000 for short time.” Rumours abound online that female TV stars and actresses can be hired for sex, the report concludes.
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