The government began taking a serious view of violence against women only in the 1990s. See http://www.aspr.ac.at/epu/research/Babur.pdf

The Ministry of Social Welfare started addressing these issues. It now works within the framework of the National Strategic Framework Protection to prevent violence against women.

In 2000, the National Commission on the Status of Women was set up to review discriminatory laws.

The Women in Distress and Detention Fund has been established to provide free legal aid to women prisoners.

A Citizen Police Liaison Committee has been set up to facilitate citizen’s access to the police and address issues related to gender-based violence.

There are Crisis Centres for Women in Distress in five cities that provide medical and legal help to women in distress.

The Pakistan government is also trying to engender governance structure at all federal and provincial levels through a Gender Reform Action Plan (GRAP), which was introduced under a decade long Medium Term Development Framework prepared by the Planning Commission of Pakistan in 2005.