LAHORE, June 26: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi has said that Child Protection and Welfare Bureau is playing an important role in safeguarding the rights of poor, destitute and abandoned children and its activities is being extended to the whole province.

He said child protection bureaus had also been set up in Gujranwala and Rahim Yar Khan while similar institutions would be established in Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Multan, Sialkot and other major cities of the province as well. He said practical shape was being given on a priority basis to a comprehensive programme of protection of the rights of children and their rehabilitation.

He was presiding over the second meeting of the board of governors of the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau here on Monday.

Adviser to the Chief Minister on Children Rights Dr Faiza Asghar briefed the meeting on the activities of the bureau. Chief secretary Salman Siddique, health secretary Javed Malik, Population Welfare secretary Qazi Afaq Husain, special education secretary Sohail Masood and other senior officers were also present.

The chief minister said the government was taking measures for education, health and economic rehabilitation of resourceless, homeless and beggar children, and open reception centres had been set up at different places in Lahore, Multan, Gujranwala and Faisalabad for identifying such children. Similar centres would also be established in the other cities. He said 2,000 children had so far been recovered from different gangs and rehabilitated. Similarly, 1,800 children have been restored to their parents.

He said that the elements involved in smuggling of children for such heinous activities as camel race in Gulf States would be exposed and taken to task.

Moreover, he said, 17 gangs involved in forcing children into beggary have been smashed and 26 cases have been registered. He said child protection units operating under the Child Protection Bureau in Lahore and Gujranwala were playing an important role in the recovery of abandoned and deprived children from criminal gangs.

He said 315 children used in camel race in Gulf States had been recovered and the government was implementing a comprehensive programme for providing them health, education, training and accommodation facilities.—APP