The focus on cases of violence against children, especially kidnapping and sexual abuse, has increased, as the federal government recently introduced a bill in the National Assembly for raising alert, response and recovery of missing and abducted children.

Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari on April 24 introduced The Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery (ZARR) Bill, 2019, proposing creation of a ZARR Agency of Missing and Abducted Children. As child right is a provincial subject under the Constitution, the proposed law will be applicable to the Islamabad Capital Territory.

The bill is named after a six-year-old girl Zainab who was kidnapped, raped and killed in Kasur in Jan 2018. Her killing had resulted in nationwide protests. Her killer Imran Ali was sentenced to death for killing and sexually abusing Zainab and several other children and was executed in Oct 2018.

The bill provides that the federal government shall establish the ZARR Agency (ZARRA) headed by a director general. It provides that the director general in consultation with the National Commission on the Rights of the Child (NCRC) shall establish missing child response and recovery teams (MCRRTs) at the level of federal capital.

Every MCRRT shall be headed by a senior police officer not less than the rank of superintendent of police and shall also include a child protection officer. The proposed law also envisages that a police station where a case of missing or abducted child is reported shall immediately and not later than two hours after the complaint is lodged, inform the ZARRA, of the missing child incident and keep providing latest status of the case.

It provides that the MCRRT shall take immediate action and launch, with the help of local police, the investigation, search, rescue, recovery and rehabilitation operations.

The Bill also proposes amendments in Pakistan Penal Code and provides for substituting the existing section 364-A, which presently relates to kidnapping or abducting a child below 14 years of age. The proposed amendments suggest increasing the age of a child to 18 years.

According to data of child abuse recently released by Sahil, an NGO dealing with child rights, a total of 3,832 cases have been reported in newspapers during 2018. These cases were reported from all the four provinces, Islamabad Capital Territory, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. It is stated that over 10 children have been abused per day during 2018.

The data shows that of the total 3,832 cases of child abuse, 55 per cent victims were girls and 45 per cent boys.

The NGO claims that the major crime categories of the reported cases were: abduction 923, sodomy 589, rape 537, missing children 452, attempt of rape 345, gang sodomy 282, gang rape 156 and 99 cases of child marriages.

From time to time the child protection laws have been introduced in the four provinces and amendments made in Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Punjab was the first province where a law on child protection was enacted in 2004. The Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act, 2004, deals with a variety of issues related to child protection. The law gives a definition of ‘destitute and neglected child.’

Under this law, a child protection and welfare bureau has to be set up with wide-ranging functions. The bureau has also to set up child protection institutions in different areas.

Following Punjab, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa enacted the KP Child Protection and Welfare Act (KPCPWA), 2010. This law is having several provisions similar to the law in Punjab, but was enacted with various improvements.

The KP law included several offences against children with prescribed punishments. The offences incorporated into the Act include: child pornography, child sexual abuse, sale in child organs, corporal punishment, child begging and child trafficking.

The KP Act provides for setting up of several child protection bodies, including the Child Protection and Welfare Commission, child protection units on district level, child protection institute, etc.

The Sindh Assembly had passed the Sindh Child Protection Authority Act, 2011, which was given assent by the governor in June 2011. This law makes it binding on the provincial government to establish Sindh Child Protection Authority, which is chaired by minister for social welfare. Balochistan Child Protection Act, 2016, was enacted in Nov 2016.

On the federal level, the National Commission on the Rights of Child Act, 2017, was enacted in Sept 2017, which provides for establishing a commission having a chairperson who should be a person having experience of not less than 15 years in the field of child rights.

Another piece of legislation is the Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act, 2016, which was enacted in March 2016 and through it several amendments were made in the PPC and CrPC. Some of the provisions included in PPC are similar to the ones available in the KPCPWA, including offences related to exposure to seduction, child pornography, sexual abuse, etc.

Another law, Criminal Law (Amendment) (Offences related to rape) Act, 2016, was introduced in 2016 and through it amendments were made in PPC and CrPC. Under those amendments, a sub-section 3 was included in section 376 PPC which provides: “Whoever commits rape of a minor or a person with mental or physical disability shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life and fine.”

The latest law was that of Islamabad Capital Territory Child Protection Act, 2018, which was enacted in May last year and envisages setting up of a child protection advisory board having the concerned minister as its patron and the relevant federal secretary as its chairperson.

A few days ago, the Child Rights Movement, an umbrella organisation of different civil society groups and individuals, called upon Prime Minister Imran Khan to allocate appropriate funds in the forthcoming budget for child rights issues, including their education, health, food and protection.

Experts on the subject believe that coordinated efforts by the federal and provincial governments are needed to curb violence against children. They believe that the provincial government should be convinced to enact laws or amend existing child protection laws to include provisions like that of ZARR Bill.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2019