PESHAWAR, Feb 11: Speakers at a consultation on Wednesday stated most of the issues related to children were provincial subjects under the constitution but the provincial governments had not been making appropriate legislation in this regard.

They pointed out that there were various loopholes in the government report submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) under the CRC (Convention on the Rights of the Child) as the guidelines provided to the government by the said committee after examining the earlier reports had never been followed.

The speakers were expressing their views at a consultation on “Alternative report on the state of child rights in Pakistan” organised by Sparc (Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child).

Head of Sparc, Anees Jillani, stated that Pakistan ratified the CRC on Nov 12, 1990.

He added that Article 44 of the CRC made it binding on the states to report to the UNCRC within two years of ratification, and then report after every five years.

Mr Jillani regretted that the second report was due in

1997 but it was submitted in 2001.

He added that government had submitted its 3rd and 4th progress reports in August 2008, which would be considered by the committee in its meeting to be held from Sept 14 to Oct 2.

He pointed out that despite clear preparation guidelines the government did not prepare the reports according to the given procedures and no proper institution mechanism was in place to compile such reports.

“No accurate data of key issues is available like population, number of children, schools, etc,” he said adding that even it was not clear how much of the budget for education and health had been spent on children.

Mr Jillani pointed out that although Pakistan ratified the CRC in 1990 but since then in the last 18 years only few child-related legislations were made.

Advocate Hashim Raza stated that there was no uniform definition of a child as the upper age limit given for a child was different in different laws. He said that they should make uniformity in laws.

The AIG of Prisons, Shah Suleman, informed that construction work of a borstal for juvenile prisoners had been completed in Bannu district but it was yet to be made functional.

He added that they had requested the finance department to release funds for the staff to be appointed there. He added that construction of another borstal at Haripur was in the pipelines.

An official of the Ombudsman Department, Mashood Mirza, and Chairman of Voice of Prisoners Noor Alam Khan pointed out that there was no law in the NWFP for the running of the borstals.

They called upon the provincial government to enact a law on the pattern of the Punjab Borstal School Act and Sindh Borstal School Act for the smooth operation of the proposed borstal institutes.

“The use of drugs and addiction to glue has been on the rise among street children in the province,” said Ms Parveen Azam Khan, chief executive of Dost Foundation.

She added that they had established a centre for child drug addicts from where it surfaced that some of these children had also been suffering from HIV/AIDS.

The director of Probation Department, Moalam Jan, informed the consultation that they were having only 18 posts of probation officers across the province out of which two posts were vacant.

He added that there was no female probation officer in the entire province due to which the male officers had to supervise female probationers released by courts.

The speakers also criticised the role of the National Commission on Child Welfare and Development (NCCWD) and provincial commission stating that even it was not known when the last meeting of the provincial commission was held.