RECENTLY, the Punjab government held a ground-breaking ceremony for a new initiative in supporting women who are victims of violence. The pilot Violence Against Women Centre in Multan aims to bring all services for women under one roof, including first aid, legal aid and advice, medical examinations and forensics, police reporting, and post trauma rehabilitation.

For women who have had to go from police office to hospital to lawyer’s office to psychologist, this will reduce at least some of the stress of their trauma.

The Multan centre will open in March 2016, and is expected to be followed by 34 similar centres. The focus is in south Punjab, because this is where rates of violence against women are highest. The centre is meant to be a vast improvement on shelters in Pakistan, which currently operate under unsatisfactory, unsafe conditions paired with mediaeval attitudes towards women who are victims of domestic violence. But can this new type of centre truly deliver on what it promises?