MULTAN, April 19: The Punjab Child Protection Bureau has brought back 690 jockey children from the UAE of which 684 have been handed over to their families.

Bureau chairperson and Adviser to Chief Minister Dr Faiza Asghar stated this while inaugurating Child Protection Institute here on Wednesday.

She said the six remaining children could not be reunited with their families because they were smuggled to in their early ages and now they have forgotten the names of their parents and address of their houses. They were getting education in her institute, she added.

She said 550 of 690 children were getting education in their houses with the sponsorship of her institute.

She said she has contacted the UAE government for the financial support of the parents of the children so that they could earn their livelihood in a reasonable way and the UAE government has given positive response.

She said 170 children were smuggled to UAE for camel race from Rahim Yar Khan district alone.

Bureau’s director programmes Zubair Ahmad Shad said the bureau took more than 3,500 children in custody in Lahore while Ali Raza, resident director of Child Protection Institute here, said 24 places have been identified in Multan where 1,000 to 1,500 children were involved in begging.

He said according to their survey the parents of these children were linked to the shameful profession.

He said 177 children were taken in custody in Multan of which 49 were living in the institute while the remaining were handed over to their parents.

MPA Zaibun Nisa, MPA Shamim Akhtar, additional session judge and Presiding Officer of Child Protection Court Sheikh Muhammad Akram, city district nazim Mian Faisal Mukhtar, naib nazim Syed Wajid Ali Shah, DCO Iftikhar Babar, Ghazala Khakwani and town nazim Mian Jamil Ahmad were also present on the occasion.

Urdu conference: The three-day International Urdu Conference, jointly organised by the Bahauddin Zakriya University’s Urdu department and the Higher Education Commission, opened here on Thursday.

On the first day of the conference, a musical show was held at the Multan Arts Council building, where famous folk singers performed.

On the second day, theses on comparative studies of Sir Syed Tahreek, Tarakki Pasand Tahreek and Jadeediat will be presented. — Correspondent