HUMAN smuggling and trafficking has become a vast spreading phenomenon today in the world. Pakistan has become a transit source and also a destination for human smuggling. A large number of women and children are being smuggled and trafficked from or through Pakistan to different countries for different purposes.

According to a report, 100 to 150 women, aging from eight to 30 years, specifically for sexual abuse or for organ trade, are being smuggled daily either inside or to different countries through Pakistan.

A large number of children have also been smuggled from Pakistan to the Middle East and Gulf states for camel racing and beggary, most of them were from district Rahimyar Khan, brought back by the efforts of Unicef and Child Welfare and Protection Bureau, government of Punjab.

Today most of the countries are working to stop human trafficking in many ways. Pakistan is also one of them. According to the US State Department report on human trafficking 2008, Pakistan has set into tier two, improving from tier three, due to its recent efforts to stop human trafficking, particularly in the area of law enforcement.

The Pakistan government announced an ordinance in 2002 for the Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking (PACHTO). According to the ordinance, seven to 14 years' imprisonment is suggested for this crime and cases will be prosecuted under Criminal Procedure Code 1898 and the investigations will be done only by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

In Criminal Procedure Code 1898 (CPC) of Pakistan there are sections 366-b, 370, 371,372,373 and 374 which are all about selling and purchasing of human being as slaves, forced labour or about use of someone for prostitution.

But there isn't a single section in the CPC to be dealt with human smuggling and these existing laws are also not sufficient to handle the problem. For example, 366-b is about importation of girls from foreign country under the age of 21 years with intent that she may be, or knowing it to be likely that she will be, forced or seduced to illicit intercourse with another person, shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to 10 years and shall also be liable to fine.

What if the girl is not used for prostitution? We know that most of the Bengali women are brought to Pakistan and sold and most of them are purchased by people who marry them, which section of the CPC is applied here?

Unfortunately there is not a single one. All such women, if caught somewhere, are compelled to admit their marital relation as illicit one so that no police case can be made against the traffickers. Therefore, a serious revision of the laws is needed.

Secondly, new offices of the FIA should be established in the most affected areas like the district of Rahimyar Khan from where more than 450 children are trafficked to the Middle East for camel racing and a big market of Bengali women is placed here but the nearest FIA office is situated in Multan, nearly 300km from Rahimyar Khan.

Apartment from all these legal efforts, a large-scale media campaign should be initiated. The electronic media has become the most powerful source and can be used for such an awareness campaign. In this respect, here, the efforts made by Hollywood and the Indian film industry must be praised which are making films on this serious topic. Pakistan's electronic media should also make efforts for creating such awareness among people.

ABDUL WAHAB

Rahimyar Khan