Pakistan, Jan. 27 -- In a country where formal complaints of abuse in sports are virtually non-existent, the question isn't whether abuse happens; it's why no one reports it. This isn't because athletes are living in a vacuum of safety; it is because the system fails to inspire even the basic confidence required to make a report.

Interviews with stakeholders across Pakistan's sports landscape point to a deeper problem: most athletes do not know the reporting system exists at the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA). And of those who do, very few believe it will protect them. In practice, the system is not only underutilised-it is unknown, underfunded, and untrusted.

This absence of trust is not without reason. The existing mechanism is ne...