Daily Times

KHAIRPUR: Marvi Rural Development Organization (MRDO) organized a multi stakeholder meeting in Sukkur on the issue of early child marriages on Thursday.

The main purpose of the session was to address and highlight the issues related to early child marriages ad forced marriages taking place in interior Sindh.

While addressing the session participants said that although the issue of early child marriages is widespread in Pakistan, this issue remains firmly rooted in cultural and customary practices of Sindh. And in order to tackle the issue, a collective effort from the community and different organisations, especially from Police is required.

The first step towards this effort could be educating parents about the negative impacts of early child marriages. Persuading parents to keep their daughters in schools could be the next step of the process. Speaking on the issue CEO-MRDO Sughra Solangi said, ”Forcing children, especially girls, into early marriages can be physically and emotionally harmful because it violates their basic right to personal freedom and growth”. Solangi called it an egregious human right violation.

Saira Ahmed working in Women, Peace and Security while describing the plight of girls in Sindh said ”a large number of girls leave schools, secondary education due to their marriages in tender ages”. She also said that apart from early marriages, another reason behind kids not being able to attend school is the lack of transportation and poor infrastructure of schools. Not having basic of the facilities in the schools is making the problem worse.

She said that”Pakistan has signed and ratified a number of international commitments (binding and non-binding) including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 1990 and CEDAW U.N Human Rights Charter (1945), the Beijing Declaration and the ICPD”. But unfortunately poor implementation of the laws from the authorities, results in the gross violation of these commitments.

She further said, “Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013 (SCMRA) is not being properly implemented in Sindh. District Monitoring Committees presence seems just to be on the paper because they have failed miserably to response at the local level. These DMCs need more institutional support to act as an effective platform to prevent early marriages. Police officials are not aware of the law either, said Saira.

Salman Ali Manager Programs- MRDO said, “we all know that Pakistan failed to achieve its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets related to maternal and child health but Pakistan is among the first few states which proposed a target to end child marriage by 2030 ”. Meeting these development goals is going to be a major challenge for the up-coming Sindh government.

He further said, “Women in Sindh are economically and politically marginalized. They are extremely vulnerable to gender-based violence and of the many forms of gender-based violence, depriving women of their basic rights is the most blatant form of these crimes. The young age of child brides and their limited power in decision-making (sexual, financial, or otherwise) leave them financially and socially insecure” He urged the administration and up-coming government to take severe notice of this issue.

The meeting was attended by a large number of social workers from different segments of society.

Muhammad Pirzada elected deputy general secretary of xAPUOF

Director Physical Education Muhammad Murad Pirzada, of Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur has been elected as Deputy General Secretary of All Pakistan Universities Officers Federation (APUOF). Mr. Pirzada was sworn in to this designation in a meeting of Federation held in Karachi University. The Officers Welfare Association (OWA) and other University officials including the Registrar and Employees Welfare Associations (EWA) have welcomed this move, and congratulated Mr. Pirzada for this new and challenging assignment.

Allegations of administrative corruption baseless: SALU

The spokesperson of Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Muhammad Ibrahim Khokhar has refused the baseless charges levelled against the University authorities by a group of teachers. In a statement on Thursday, the Spokesperson said that the University is going through worst financial crisis and but some teachers are trying to further exploit the situation for their vested interests. ”The Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Parveen Shah is a committed Vice Chancellor and she has been successfully leading this University through thick and thin for six continuous years. She is determined to lead this University out of this crisis too” said the spokesman.

The Spokesperson further stated that all allegations of the administrative corruption are baseless and is the creation of the people who used to benefit from the previous glitch-full manual system. The decision of Online Fees Deposit System and computerization of record along with the reforms in finance wing are troubling the people who are putting allegations on the administration. This computerization of record is a great achievement of the Vice Chancellor.

While rejecting all the allegations levelled on the administration, the spokesman further said that Vice Chancellor’s concrete measures to check huge cash flow and to cut unnecessary expenditures to save this University from collapse, is another great appreciable achievement.

Meanwhile, the Director Students Affairs, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur Syed Mehdi Shah Rashdi has welcomed the students to campus after summer vacations.

The Director also invited them to visit the Directorate of Students Affairs for career counselling, curricular and co-curricular activities.

This is to be noted here that the Directorate of Students Affairs is an important stakeholder of the University, which facilitates students regarding different opportunities; including career counselling, debate competitions and arranging different events at fully constructed Students Service Center.

Published in Daily Times, August 10^th 2018.