KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday expressed serious resentment on provincial authorities for not properly enforcing the child protection law enacted in 2011 and directed the secretary of the social welfare department to appear on Nov 3.

When a petition seeking implementation of the Sindh Child Protection Authority Act, 2011 in letter and spirit came up for hearing before the two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, the director general of the Sindh Child Protection Authority (SCPA) filed an interim progress report and contended that child protection institutions were being established.

The bench deplored that the law in question was notified on June 15, 2011 with certain beneficial provisions for protection of children, but it was highly regrettable that despite making the law in 2011, no positive efforts had been made by the government to implement these provisions in the larger public interest.

The Sindh Child Protection Authority Rules, 2016 have already been framed to deal with some procedural matters, but the fact remains that this law has not been made functional in its letter and spirit, it added.

The bench directed the DG SCPA to submit a detailed progress report with regard to all efforts made by him for the proper application and implementation of the law with facts and figures on the next hearing.

It also issued notice to the provincial secretary of social welfare department with direction to appear in person on Nov 3.

The head of an NGO, Legal Aid Society, was also present along with her lawyer and they contended that on their own they were making some efforts for child protection throughout the province. The bench also directed them to submit their efforts in writing on the next hearing.

The DG SCPA Azeem-ur-Rahim Meo in the report contended that three child-protection institutes, one each in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur, were working under the control of social welfare department and respectively 22, 24 and 12 children were nestled in these institutes.

He further asserted that a child protection institute was under construction in Korangi and likely to be completed by June 2021 and it would have the capacity to nestle 200 boys and 100 girls.

On the direction of a single-judge bench of the SHC, issued in another petition, two pilot projects are being established in Karachi and the provincial government has allocated an amount of Rs50 million for this purpose, he added in the report.

Bail of former MD STDC, others dismissed

Another divisional bench of the SHC on Friday dismissed the pre-arrest bail of former managing director of Sindh Tourism Development Corporation and others in a corruption reference.

National Accountability Bureau had filed a reference against the then MD STDC Roshan Ali Kanasro, assistant manager of STDC Mohammad Azeem, section officer information and archives department Altaf Memon and others for allegedly misusing their authority and illegally awarding contracts to unqualified contractors, non-provision of items/services against awarded works which resulted in a loss of Rs27.110m to the state kitty.

The bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha observed that a cursory glance of the record showed that all the petitioners in connivance with each other had misappropriated a huge amount of money from the government and some amount was also recovered through plea bargains.

Under these circumstances the interim pre-arrest bail granted to all the petitioners earlier by this court is recalled with immediate effect, it added.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2020