Daily Times

LAHORE: The Search For Justice (CAN Pakistan) and the Punjab Child Rights Movement Wednesday held a briefing session for legislators on child rights situation with a view to draw the attention of decision makers to take necessary measures to ensure protection of children from all forms of abuse and exploitation.

The session was organised with the collaboration of the Parliamentary Youth Caucus in Punjab Assembly (PA).

Child rights activist Iftikhar Mubarik said that the Punjab government must ensure harmonisation of laws with UN Convention on the Rights of Child ratified by Pakistan in 1990.

He said that the government of Punjab must initiate a process of development of a child protection policy in the province to define strategic milestones to achieve the goal of child protection.

CAN Pakistan and CRM Coordinator Rashida Qureshi urged the authorities concerned to set up an independent monitoring body at the provincial level to ensure the compliance and implementation of Concluding Observations issued by UN Committee on the Rights of Child in 2009 and 2016.

She demanded the government to allocate sufficient funds to ensure capacity building of government departments, including law enforcement agencies, on child protection as well as to launch mass media awareness campaign focusing to deal children with love and affection. “There is strong need to establish community-based child protection mechanisms through engaging local government system.”

Parliamentary Youth Caucus Convener Asif Mehmood said that the idea behind the formation of caucus was to prioritise the issues of young people and raise those on the floor of the House to get them resolve.

He acknowledged that the issues of children required continuous push by lawmakers to get the desired positive outcomes. He assured that the Youth Caucus would surely take up the issues of children where legislation and policy measures were required from the government side.

“End violence against children from all forms of abuse and exploitation is also in line with Pakistan’s recent commitments under target 16.2 of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” he said

Khaliq Shah, an economist, said that the Punjab government must understand the process when it comes to budget making so that common people could understand what government were allocating for their welfare.

“A human rights approach requires the provincial government to see its role as fulfilling clear legal obligations to each and every child, rather than as providing charitable services, bestowing favours on children,” he added.

Youth Affairs Department Parliamentary Secretary Sarfaraz Afzal, Saadia Sohail Rana, Bushra Butt, Hina Pervaiz Butt, Rana Mannan Khan, Sardar Vikas Hassan Moakal, Chaudhry Akmal Saif Chattha and others participated in the session.