Sources in the ministry of women development said over 1,000 women become victims of ‘karo-kari’ or honour killings each year.

Women are burnt, raped, strangled and or just beaten to death each year in the country. The figures ‘reported in various surveys are gross underestimation of the real cases’, said a report in the Business Recorder newspaper.

A majority of the cases are not reported to law enforcement agencies or NGOs working for the uplift of women, it said.

Violence against women is a human rights violation, which is fuelled by long-standing social and cultural norms that reinforce its acceptability.

In Pakistan, women are more at risk of experiencing violence in intimate relationships than anywhere else, the report said.

The tribal customs of ‘Vani’ and ‘Swara’ -- -- whereby girls are promised in marriage to compensate for a relative's crime -- are still practiced in tribal areas to settle blood feuds. Young girls are often married off to members of the feuding tribes, it said.