CHITRAL: Rights activists here have expressed their reservations about the closure of child protection unit (CPU) which had been playing its role in curbing violence against children in this remote district since its inception in 2014 under the KP Child Protection and Welfare Act 2010.

As an organ of the department of social welfare, women empowerment and human rights, the CPU emerged as a saviour of the children in distress in the district and had also enlisted the support of the society by organising child protection committees (CPCs) in all major villages here.

Niaz A Niazi advocate, a human rights activist, said that the CPU was reaching the children in distress even in the remote corners of the district with the help of CPCs and provided them with needed support.

He said that the CPU unveiled several child rights violations in the district and had brought to book the perpetrators while the people felt that the state machinery was vigorously safeguarding the children.

The senior counsel of Chitral, Zafar Hayat advocate, said that without the CPU, the KP Child Protection and Welfare Act 2010 had become redundant as it was the only apparatus to implement provisions of the law.

Mr Hayat feared that the violence against children would grow in Chitral and such cases would not be reported anymore in the absence of CPU.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2019