PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa labour and human rights minister Shaukat Yousafzai has said the child protection units in 12 districts will be made functional soon.

Addressing a Universal Children Day event here on Friday, the minister also said the provincial Child Protection and Welfare Commission (CPWC) was in the process of filling vacancies in child protection units.

“We [government] have decided to extend child protection units to all parts of the province,” he said.

The event was arranged by the CPWC, social welfare department, and NGO Group Development Pakistan.

Deputy chief of the CPWC Ijaz Mohammad Khan said Pakistan had signed and ratified the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the child and committed itself to protecting its children from all kinds of abuse.

He said it was the provincial government’s responsibility to improve the child protection mechanism and introduce laws, rules and regulations to protect children from violence, abuse and exploitation.

Mr Ijaz said the government enacted the child protection law in 2010 leading to the establishment of the provincial child protection and welfare commission.

“The commission established 12 child protection units at district level initiating a mechanism for child protection at provincial, district and community levels,” he said. The CPWC deputy chief said the CEWC also identified 30,474 cases, including 18,808 boys and 11,659 girls, besides seven transgender children at risk.

Executive director of the Group Development Pakistan Saima Qadeer said a lot had been done by Pakistan including adoption of many laws for child protection. She said the implementation of laws related to children was direly needed. Ms Saima said it was heartening to see eight of 13 child courts established in KP.

Provincial chief khateeb Maulana Tayyab Qureshi said child protection was the people’s religious responsibility.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2021