PESHAWAR: A local lawyer on Saturday moved the Peshawar High Court against indulgence of poor children in begging and their sexual exploitation, with the request that such children should be handed over to child protection and welfare institutes.

Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel Advocate filed a writ petition in the court requesting it to issue directives to different government functionaries, including the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary and IGP to initiate crackdown on the vagrants, drug addicts and children at risk, and bring them before the concerned court established under the law.

He said the children at risk should be handed over to the child protection institutes for their welfare.

The lawyer requested the court to direct the Child Protection and Welfare Commission through its chief protection officer to create a complaint cell and a committee to rescue the child at risk according to the law.

He prayed that awareness programmes should be initiated through print and electronic media in this regard.

The respondents in the petition are KP government through the chief secretary; IGP; Child Protection and Welfare Commission; ministry of women empowerment and social welfare; and ministry of law.

The petitioner stated that the previously West Pakistan Vagrancy Ordinance 1958 and Orphanage (Supervision and Control) Act, 1966, were passed for the vagrants and child at risk, but these laws were repealed by the provincial assembly through the KP Child Protection and Welfare Commission (CPWC) Act, 2010, and child protection institutes had been set up.

He stated that till now no concrete step had been taken for implementation of the said law.

He added that the commission provided under section 3 of the said Act had been non-functional and no progress had been shown by the child protection institutes formed under the law.

The petitioner claimed that children of minor age were employed by professional beggars who had been begging on busy roads and streets in the provincial capital and other districts.

He added that minor children were forcibly employed in bus stands where they were sexually abused by drivers, cleaners, etc.

He stated that under the law there was a broader definition of a child at risk which included several categories of children, including an orphan, child with disability, child of migrant workers, child working or living on street, child in conflict with law, child living in extreme poverty, and child found begging.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2017