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LARKANA, Feb 3: Child labour and corporal punishment are causes of 50 per cent drop-out of children in Sindh schools.
Speaking at the District Bar Association here on Thursday, the secretary general of the Amnesty International-Pakistan, Mr Iqbal Detho, and leaders of the Society for the Protection of the Rights of Child, Anis Jillani and Arshad Mehmood, said Sindh in the British India was the first province that had adopted the Bombay Children Act in 1924 but it was not implemented.
They said it was Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who had first time issued a notification in 1974 for the enforcement of the act. They said the organization was working with the government to do away with the corporal punishment.
They said in 1996, a number of child labour was 3.5 million and in 2003 it swelled to 8 million. Terming the rise alarming, they held the government responsible for it because the existing laws remained unimplemented.
They pointed out 85 per cent children in Sindh jails were under-trial and they were languishing in violation of the juvenile laws. They pointed out that when the juvenile justice ordinance was promulgated in 1996, about 4,000 children were in country's jails and of them 677 were in Sindh.
They said under the prevailing conditions where 45 per cent of the population was living below the poverty line, advocates could play a vital role in extending free legal assistance to children in jails.
They called for evolving a mechanism of spending the funds for the general good of child and bonded labour. District Bar Association president Safdar Bhutto and Razzak Soomro also spoke on the occasion.
Later, the team visited the Larkana women jail and held consultation with local NGOs, political activists, journalists, and rights activists. Siddique Buriro and Siddique Abro of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan were also present on the occasion.
15 MOTORCYCLES RECOVERED: Police on Thursday arrested three criminals in a raid and recovered fifteen motorcycles from them. A large quantity of arms and ammunition was also seized during the raid.
Shahdadkot DPO Dr Amin Yousufzai said the police conducted a raid on Malook Bueldi village in the Drigh police area and arrested Nawab Buledi, Akhtiar Buledi and Abbas Chandio.
Mr Yousufzai claimed 15 motorcycles were recovered from the village which were hijacked from different parts of the district. Two rifles, 17 single and double barrel guns, one TT pistol and four shells of rocket launcher were also seized. The DPO said the village was a hideout of criminals and proclaimed offenders.
KINDAPPED: A woman, Laila Sangi, was kidnapped in the Siddique colony area of the city on Thursday. Her brother Riaz Sangi registered an FIR at the Haidri police against Nisar Tunio and three others for kidnapping the girl.
