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When Intimacy Becomes a Weapon: The Legal Battle Against Non-Consensual Intimate Images in Pakistan

When Intimacy Becomes a Weapon: The Legal Battle Against Non-Consensual Intimate Images in Pakistan

What really happens when the trust one places in another becomes leverage, intimacy becomes a dagger pressed against the chest, and love takes the form of an evidence? When, without consent, intimate images, perhaps once shared in a moment of euphoria, vulnerability, or misplaced trust, are disseminated, this is where a private moment gets transformed into a public weapon and leaves victims to confront not just the anguish of personal betrayal, but the mercy of a far more consequential question: can the law itself meaningfully protect victims when the person entrusted with their intimacy becomes the one who weaponizes it against them?

In 2017, a 22-year-old student, whose name was Naila Rind, got away with her life permanently at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, after being blackmailed by her ex-partner with intimate photographs they had once exchanged in sheer confidence. In Okara, a mother of four gulped down the poison after her relatives forged explicit images from standard photographs and circulated these on WhatsApp. She did so months after she had already filed a complaint with the FIA’s cybercrime wing. As recently as December 2025, a Pakistani woman was targeted through a deepfake pornography campaign, and Dawn reported this. After she reported the matter to the authorities, the lead investigator was transferred while the investigation was still ongoing. The investigation eventually, and apparently, lost momentum because of that disruption. This forced the campaign to migrate abroad, where it continued unchecked and made it occult for Pakistani authorities to investigate.

These are not isolated tragedies. These are actually symptoms of a system that criminalizes non-consensual intimate image distribution (NCII) fairly seriously, but, in actuality, it repeatedly fails the people it exists to protect. This article is meant to examine what remedies for it exist under Pakistani law, where these fall short, and what would be the requirement of a functioning response.

The Statutory Framework

The NCII cases in Pakistan are being dealt with primarily by the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (PECA). Section 19 of the said Act, titled “Offences against modesty of a natural person and Minor,” criminalizes intentional and public exhibition, display, or transmission of information that superimposes a person’s face into sexually........

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