ISLAMABAD: A non-governmental organisation on Thursday approached the Supreme Court, seeking a declaration that cases of missing children should be treated by the police as a cognizable offence.

Moved by senior counsel Shabbar Raza Rizvi on behalf of the Roshni Research and Development Welfare Organisation, Karachi, the petition also sought a directive for the federal and provincial governments to amend laws and establish special courts in consultation with the high courts.

According to a study conducted by the organisation, 5,000 to 6,000 children disappear from Karachi alone every year but when reported, the police simply mention the incident through entries in their ‘daily diary’ (Roznamcha), instead of registering a proper FIR, without carrying out any investigation or making efforts to trace such children.

While talking to Dawn, Shabbar Rizvi said the organisation had recovered 4,832 children from Karachi and other districts of Sindh from 2006 to 2018 to reunite them with their families, but the task was too gigantic and not possible for the organisation to carry out it single-handedly.

The police only react when a case is taken up by the media or the parents of the missing child that too in case the child belongs to an influential family, he said.

The petition cited Section 364-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which says that whoever kidnaps or abducts any child under the age of 14 to murder or subjects to grievous hurt or slavery will be punished with the life sentence or with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to 14 years.

Published in Dawn, July 06th, 2018