Daily Times

The Senate on Wednesday passed the ‘Zainab Alert, Recovery and Response Bill, 2020’ aimed at raising alert, response and recovery of missing and abducted children.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Khan Swati moved a motion under Rule 263 for immediate consideration of the bill by dispensing the rules.

The House passed the motion and considered the bill as reported by the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights. The House passed the bill after a brief discussion following which investigation into all cases involving the kidnapping, rape and murder of minor children will be completed within three months.

The bill will raise the required alerts and initiate the responses required for recovery of missing, abducted, abused or kidnapped children in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). It will help to provide speedy system for alerts, responses, recoveries, investigations, trails and rehabilitation to prevent and curb criminal activities against the children.

It will also ensure harmonization and cohesion in the workings of the new agencies and institutions established for the protection of children and already exacting mechanisms within this field. The bill was presented by Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Khan Swati. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) opposed the bill. The bill is named after Zainab Ansari, who had been kidnapped on January 4 and found from a garbage heap on January 9. Zainab’s autopsy report suggested that the minor was sexually assaulted before being strangulated to death. Separately, taking Senate into confidence on US-Taliban peace deal, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi clarified that Pakistan only facilitated the Afghan peace process for ending the decades-old war in the country. He said that Islamabad is not a party to the US-Taliban peace deal. He said the representatives of the US and Taliban held two sittings on February 29 during which the peace deal was finalized. He said that some elements in Afghanistan and the United States tried to sabotage the peace process but they failed in their heinous designs. The foreign minister maintained that Pakistan cannot take all the responsibility for peace in Afghanistan. “This is a shared responsibility, and all stakeholders will have to play their part. It is inappropriate to place all the responsibility on Pakistan,” he said. “There are many powers, interests and motives [involved],” he said, adding that the true test of the Afghan leadership begins now. “Can they rise to the occasion and chart a peaceful way forward or not; only time will tell,” he said.