Daily Times

In Monday’s session, the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights decided to incorporate the jurisdiction of Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in the Zainab Alert, Respond and Recovery bill thus it would be implemented in the whole country beside Islamabad.

The committee headed by PPP senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar argued that cases regarding child exploitation and abduction should be taken under ATC as it shall pave to implement the bill in the whole country.

And only ATC’s courts will be able to draw a quick verdict upon the cases, “should be heard in ATCs as we all know the situation of other courts”. He commends.

Earlier, Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Agency 2019 (ZARRA), known as Zainab Alert bill had been taken for implementation only in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). Although the inclusion of crimes and proposes punishments in the bill had made it vague that the law is only for Islamabad, which was then indicated in the parliamentary sub-committee.

Initially, the Zainab Alert bill which had been zealously taken for implementation after a marathon of unforgivable news regarding minors appeared from Kasur in 2018.

In the pre-legislation, most legislators were vowing to hang the culprits till death and the public were arguing to punish such sinners under Shariah’s law or at least hang them in front public.

But on August 9 last year when the first meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights led by Bhutto-Zardari ends, it asked to remove the severe punishment  ⁠— which was meant to hang to culprit till death ⁠— by describing this punishment as “frightening and extreme”.

PPP’s senators Shazia Marri and Farhatullah Babar, even the secretary Ministery of Human Rights Rabiya Javeri Agha stand up ⁠against  ⁠—  hanging the child rapist(s) to death.

Followed by a gap of 5 months the Zainab Alert bill passed in the National Assembly on January 10, which asked the maximum sentence for offenders of child sexual abuse will be life imprisonment with a fine of Rs1 million while the ⁠— minimum sentence will be 10 years.

Alongside this, a helpline will also be established to report missing children while an agency will also be set up which will issue an alert about the missing child with immediate effects.

The bill also asks to conclude the cases in three months.

Furthermore, the bill also recommends taking action ⁠— against police officials who won’t respond to child abuse related cases within two hours.

Meanwhile, Zainab Alert bill was advancing to the Senate, then PML-N’s senator, Mushahidullah Khan comes and queried that the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights should go through the bill first.

Scheduled on January 15, the committee headed by Mustafa Khokhar arranged the first meeting on the bill which ended with the suggestion of amending the bill. That, cases regarding child trafficking and kidnapping for ransom should also be included in the bill, though the punishment would be different for these offenders.

In the interim, the term “child under eighteen years of age” which is mentioned should be replaced with “child”. As the word child itself personified to less than 18 years. The committee added.

Nevertheless, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Muhammad Azam Khan Swati on Tuesday urged the legislators to pass the Zainab Alert bill in the first hand as amendments will be followed in the future also.