Daily Times

The rape and murder of seven-year-old Zainab earlier this year in Kasur was supposed to be a watershed moment. Civil society came together as did the media to say, never again. The Punjab Chief Minister took special interest in the case. The provincial government even took the commendable step of coming up with pamphlets teaching children as young as 10 years-old about what constitutes inappropriate adult touch; to be distributed in all schools and madrassas on its watch. The culprit was even sentenced to death.

Yet here Pakistan is again. Having gone nowhere.

An eight-year-old girl, Noor Fatima, has been raped in Chichawatni. The perpetrator then set about trying to burn her alive. By the time she was found and taken to hospital, doctors said the child had suffered up to 80 percent burns to her body. Like Zainab, she did not make it. Noor Fatima had gone off by herself to buy sweets. Her parents raised the alarm after three hours. It is easy to blame the families in such circumstances. But it is unfair. For the privileged class has for too long thought itself to have a monopoly on safeguarding its children. Usually at the expense of working-class labour. And while a First Information Report (FIR) has been filed, charges of rape are missing despite the post-mortem having confirmed this. It is hoped that this will be amended once the forensics report comes back.

Equally shocking is the news that over the weekend six minors were subject to sexual abuse in Kasur. The first incident (on Saturday) involved the kidnapping of two boys that ended in torture and rape. When locals took the pair to the police station, officers initially refused to register an FIR. It is therefore incumbent upon Shehbaz Sharif to look into the matter and to take necessary action against those who failed to fulfil their duties. Then on Sunday, separate incidents saw the rape of a 12-year-old girl; a seven-year-old boy; a six-year-old boy; and a five-year-old boy.

The Kasur police raided mobile phone shops over the weekend, finding video clips of “objectionable” material on sale for just a few rupees. That this is still happening after the Kasur child abuse sex scandal came to light in 2015 is as shocking as it is unacceptable.

Given that this had happened largely on the PMLN watch it had been hoped that the Punjab government would have taken pre-emptive measures to confront such crimes; rather than responding on the back foot. Though the rape of children is a nationwide problem. But the point remains that Pakistan has failed to come up with a comprehensive action plan to combat this threat.

This must be a priority for the incoming government; at both the provincial and federal level. For this simply cannot go on.  *

Published in Daily Times, April 11^th 2018.