ISLAMABAD: Representatives from non-governmental organizations including Muslim Aid, UGOOD, AWAZ Foundation, Spark and others have demanded the Caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan, Anwarul Haq Kakar to ban all kinds of child labour via an executive order and implement Article 25A in true spirit to deal with the recently increasing cases of child domestic labour and child abuses in the country.
Leading Social Activists Farzana Bari and Former Member Senate Sehar Kaamran were also present on the occasion.
In a joint press conference organized by Child Rights Moment here at Islamabad Press Club on Thursday, the speakers raised grave concerns over the dismal performance of different government institutions, particularly the police.
In his opening remarks of the joint press conference, Sayed Ishtiaq Hussain Gillani, CEO of Child Rights Moment, said that despite the presence of different laws on child rights in the country, its non-implementation led to the increasing number of child labour, child domestic labour, sexual abuse, torture, violence and sometime leading to death. He further said that, unfortunately, he even heard about an incident today, when an eight-year child was sexually abused by a school fellow at Banigala Islamabad.
Rizwana Case a Poor Example of Child Labour
Referring to the recently viral Rizwana Case by the family of a Judge, Gillani lamented that it was the elite class, particularly those who claimed to be the saviour and interpreter of the constitutions, were involved in such cases. He recalled that Rizwana not only complained about the lady but her husband and children in receiving torture.
He further said that it was a sigh of relief that a board had been formed to proceed the case, but again it was unfortunate that Judge still don’t make his appearance before the JIT (Joint Investigative Team).
He also highlighted the poor performance of the government institution in other child-abusing cases including the recent shocking one about Fatma from Khairpur Sindh, where he revealed that such cases reached the infamous Dark Web and were available for sale, which was a shameful act for the country.
Proper Age limit of a Child
Addressing the Press Conference former Member of the Senate Sehar Kamran grieved about the inability of the higher authorities to determine the real age for a kid, tossing between 14, 16 and 18 years. She further said that due to the confusion, the country witnessed early marriages, child labour and other social inequalities that led to polarization and behavioural changes in the society.
She also demanded the government to include civic education in the curriculum while recalling her efforts for legislation on the issue in the parliament that again led to non-implementation.
Sehar Kamran also lamented that taking sue moto notice of irrelevant issues, the Chief Justice of Pakistan should treat Rizwana and Fatma Case not with mere suspension of the culprits but with some serious action including Suo moto notices. “The masses are not interested in judiciary’s action on political issues but about the future and safety of their children”, she pointed out. She demanded to have social boycott of all those being involved in domestic child labour.
Radicalized and Polarized Society
Leading human rights activist Farzana Bari termed the increasing child labour and child abuse incidents as a collective failure, adding that twenty years back, the society was quite tolerable and accommodating but now it has been radicalized and polarized. She also suggested reactivating of the local government system to have a proper check on child issues for timely reporting to the nearby police stations. Farzana Bari also raised questions over the police system of the country and urged for their reforms.
A female child victim Eman, who is now in the supervision of SPARK in its Mirabadi Safe Centre Islamabad, also spoke on the occasion. She said that she and a number of other such children required support from the media and masses to raise their voices against child labour and domestic labour adding that they need education and provision of their basic rights.
Meanwhile, the Founder of AWAZ Foundation, Ziaur Rehman in his remarks, said that the country, particularly the judicial fraternity was celebrating the golden jubilee celebration of the Constitution this year, but unfortunately, there was no discussion in these events that was had been done to the constitution dung last 50 years. He added that due to the self-created confusion on the proper age of a child in Pakistan, the lawyers took advantage and helped the culprits to acquit them from accusations. He also raised questions over the poor curriculum, which was full of other irrelevant stuff but missing the information about child rights.
He also reminded the government about article 25A, to provide free education to children till 16 years adding that it was unfortunate that 25 million children were still out of school.
Representative of SPARK, Miss Asia said in her remarks that it has been 14 years passed, but Article 25A was still not fully implemented. She lamented that Islamabad Domestic Order 2022 was passed last year, but there were hardly three to four inspectors in the federal capital who were unable to supervise the largely populated federal capital. She demanded that the government to hire further staff, including females to get desirable results.
FATMA Case Another Poor Example
A political activist from Sindh Khairpur also spoke on the occasion, who highlighted the tragic incident of another child abused victim, Fatma, who was been locked, chained, and brutally raped by the influentials of Khairpur Sindh. He also criticized the immoral activities in the shrines in Sindh under the garb of religion and demanded media, civil and political leadership to highlight the issues in Sindh.
Nazneen Tabassum from Muslim Aid in her views demanded the government to declare 18 years age limit for a child according to international standards, adding that the government should increase funds in the education section (Waseelai Taleem) of the Benazir Income Support Program to assist the poor children in getting education to save them from child abuse and child labour.
Later, while responding to a question asked by WeNews, CEO of Child Rights Moment Ishtiaq Hussain Gillani said that a survey has been launched that would help them to know how much children were still engaged in child domestic labour, particularly in the houses of elites and after getting findings of the survey they would further expedite the issue to discourage the elite class to stop domestic child labour.
At the end, participants of the organizations held a protest in front of the press club having placards inscribing slogans against child labour, child abuse, torture and domestic child labour
