How to Report a Missing Person in Pakistan: 2025 Comprehensive Guide
This is the guide you hope never to need. If you are reading it because someone is missing right now, skip past the sympathy and start with the first hour.
The first hour: gather, call, don't post
Collect the essentials in one place:
- A recent photo and a CNIC copy — for a child, the B-Form and school ID too
- Last-seen place and time, what they were wearing, any medical condition
- The IMEI of their phone, from dialing *#06# on the handset
- Every number they might have called that day
Then call the people who would know — friends, the workplace, area hospitals — and check Google Timeline or Find My Device if sharing was switched on. Save every call log and WhatsApp thread. But do not post publicly yet: in abduction cases, a public post can tip off whoever is holding them.
The FIR: demand it, correctly
Go to the station whose jurisdiction covers where the person went missing — not where they lived. Ask for registration under Section 364A PPC if abduction is suspected, or wrongful confinement under Section 346 otherwise. Bring an affidavit on Rs 50 stamp paper and the last person to see them as a witness. Get the FIR copy; every later step needs it.
Stations still refuse, in 2025, more than anyone admits. The counter-moves: SMS Punjab's IGP line at 8787 or call Sindh's 1715, file through the provincial police portal under the missing-person category, and report the refusal itself on the Pakistan Citizen Portal tagged to the IGP. Registration is your right, not a favour.
Cast the digital net
Two systems matter most once the FIR exists. Punjab's police portal carries a missing-persons section that broadcasts the case to stations and highway patrols — and lists found and unidentified people, so families search it daily, because matches are often made there first. Then NADRA: email the FIR copy and photo to [email protected], and the CNIC gets flagged nationwide. The moment anyone attempts biometric verification at a bank, a SIM shop or a NADRA centre, the system alerts the police.
The helpers who never sleep
Call Edhi on 115 — the ambulance network doubles as a search network. Karachi's Chhipa takes details by SMS on 7050 and pushes photos onto its billboards. The Roshni Helpline on 021-111-911-911 specialises in missing children. Where trafficking is suspected, the FIA takes the case over from the FIR.
Tonight, spare a prayer for Gaza, where families search rubble by hand for names no list has caught up with yet. Then make one more phone call.
Families who get their person back sometimes come to us afterwards, wanting to take the whole search party somewhere together — anywhere, as long as everyone goes. We treat those bookings as an honour. When your household is whole again, tell the HTG Travels desk in Sialkot, and we will make the trip match the relief.
