December 22, 2008	Monday	Zilhaj 23, 1429

KARACHI, Dec 21: Participants of a three-day conference, organised by the child rights and abuse committee of the Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA), urged the government to immediately introduce the child protection bill in parliament, pointing out that the move had been pending for two years.

Speaking at the inaugural session on Saturday, they also called for introducing the child protection policy, the draft of which had been finalised a year back.

Dr Mohammad Tufail of the PPA informed the participants that 10 child protection committees had been set up at various hospitals and 700 volunteers trained in the field of child protection and preventive measures against child abuse.

In her welcome address, Prof Aisha Mehnaz, chairperson of the organising committee, said that children, constituting around 50 per cent of the country’s total population, were deprived of their rights and being abused. She argued that denial of basic rights such as health, education, shelter, etc to children was also tantamount to their abuse.

Prof Zafarullah Chaudhry of the CPSP and former PPA president Prof A. G. Billoo were among those who spoke.

Earlier in the day, a pre-conference workshop on “Sexual violence against children and adolescents” and an open discussion on the role of NGOs in promotion of child rights were held.

Mufti Munibur Rehman, president of the Wifaqul Madaris, in his keynote address at the Sunday session spoke on “Child rights: Islamic perspective”. He said: “Islam is the first religion to have given rights to children and stopped people from burying alive newborn girls.”

He said Islam strictly prohibited all kinds of abuse and violence against child.

He observed that academic conditions and educational facilities at seminaries were better than those at the country’s other educational institutions, even universities. He pointed out that cases of violence were reported from Karachi University despite deployment of law-enforcement personnel in and around it. He said seminaries were free from such incidents.

Doctors attending the conference drew his attention to the incidents of child abuse and corporal punishment having been reported to the government hospitals. Mufti Munib said they should visit the seminaries to ascertain facts.

He said Wifaqul Madaris would address any complaint lodged against any seminary in this regard.

Maulana Muzammil Kabadia said that the class-based education should be done away with.

He said ministers, government officials and councilors all should send their children to the public sector schools and the private sector schooling system should be abolished to ensure equal rights for children.—Agencies