Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA) on Thursday approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan, requesting it to direct the federal government to arrange national level information management, child tracking and re-unification mechanism for the protection of children and combating child trafficking in the country.

The petitioner further requested the top court to direct governments and concerned ministries and departments to submit their strategies and outputs with regard to missing, trafficked, kidnapped, beggars and street children in Pakistan.

LHRLA President Zia Ahmed Awan moved the petition in the top court under Article 184 (3), making the Ministry of Inter-provincial Coordination, Ministry of Interior, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and others as respondents.

The petition stated that the cases of missing and trafficked children had rapidly been increased. The ministries concerned failed to take preventive measures against the culprits, it stated.

It further stated that the number of exploited children reported in the media indicated that the ratio was on the rise.

“There is hardly any system available among the provincial government to provide any relief to such victims and take punitive action against the culprits,” the petition stated.

It contended that the responsibilities of implementation of laws had been vested in the ministries concerned as per their legal status and power. However, unfortunately no positive progress has been seen to curb all crimes against children, the petition stated.

The petition alleged that the officials concerned had not been found to be cooperative with the parents of missing, kidnapped and trafficked children.

“The police departments within the federal and provincial governments have not made missing children a priority. When a case is sent to the police station, they avoid registering first information reports due to a lack of knowledge of relevant laws,” the petition stated.

“After 18th Amendment, the Ministry of Inter-provincial Coordination has the mandate for interprovincial coordination for child rights and protection. However, nothing seems on the ground that the ministry has positively exercised,” the petition stated.

It added that existing laws pertaining to trafficking of children from and into Pakistan were insufficient to cope with menace adding that there were recent amendments in the law to deal with the issue. “However, police is unable to understand the meaning of inter-provincial trafficking. Therefore, they have not registered cases where they mentioned the work of trafficking,” the petition stated.

The petition further stated that several researches suggested over a million street children existed in Pakistan. “However, the government has failed to identify and register them or to protect their rights,” the petition stated.

The petition also prayed to direct the departments and ministries concerned to submit their MOU’s with bordering countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, India, China etc with regard to missing, trafficked, kidnapped and street children.