Hollowness of the big brag of good governance of so-called
Khadim-Aala and tall claim of making Pakistan one of Asia's tigers
Photo Curtsey:Maati Tv
More children dying in Punjab
EDITORIAL
And more criminal negligence by the government
First we were shocked by reports of the Punjab government sitting idly by while a big chunk of a crucial, donor provided, anti-polio vaccine was literally wasted. Now, there is news of dozens of children dying because of unavailability of diphtheria antitoxin (DAT), which has been reportedly out of stock since October. And, as a detailed report in this newspaper indicated, the Children Hospital – which has been overwhelmed with diphtheria cases since early this year – got together a number of doctors and approached the Secretary Health, but nobody paid much attention.
The natural question that arises is just why did the government not make necessary arrangements when the outbreak was clearly prolonged and intense, and supplies were inadequate? There are also reports that much of the available vaccine expired without being used, even though cases were on the rise. And more seriously, the hospital administration seemed concerned about disclosing the exact number of deaths. There was also at least one case when a child was discharged minutes before expiring so the death could not be reported at the hospital. And, typically, all the (interim) DG Health had to say was that the vaccine was in short supply all over the world and the disease had a high fatality rate.
It seems that the PML-N government, in its haste to fund highly visible mega projects, has not put issues like education and health too high on its priority list. Not too long ago a WHO report found that as many as 60 percent children in Pakistan were being born stunted. On top of that, the government is criminally negligent of its main duty in terms of providing necessary health provisions. In power at the centre and in Punjab, PML-N will find it hard to make a compelling case in future elections if its resume boasts impressive power plants and motorways, yet is marred with a breakdown in basic education and rise in avoidable child deaths.
Pakistan Today, Editorial ,
Public health:27,000 children in Punjab die of diarrhoea annually
PHOTO: AFP
LAHORE: Breast milk reduces mortality rate among newborns by almost 20 per cent, Save the Children Diarrhoea Prevention Programme Director Masood Abbasi said on Tuesday.
“Bottled milk increases the chances of contamination and is not as good for infants as some doctors or advertisements claim,” said Abbasi at a discussion, titled Diarrhoea Prevention and Control.
He said 27,000 children in the province died of diarrhoea annually. He said a poor sewage system and contaminated water contributed to the spread of diarrhoea. Lack of information regarding prevention measures made the situation worse, Abbasi said.
He said some people in rural areas of the province fed newborns fennel seed water which was not good for their health. “During the first six months, a child should be breastfed only,” he said.
Abbasi said the country’s child mortality rate had increased in defiance of millennium development goals. He said the Punjab – the largest province in terms of population – had the highest rate of deaths among children under five years of age.
He said diarrhoea was the second most frequent cause of death among children. Hafizabad and Khanewal were among the worst-hit districts in the province, he said.
Abbasi said Save the Children, with the collaboration of Reckitt Benckiser and the provincial government, would launch a four-year Diarrhoea Prevention and Control Programme in several union councils of Khanewal and Hafizabad. He said the move was part of the UNICEF’s seven-point plan on diarrhoea prevention and control.
The points are: Promotion of early and exclusive breastfeeding and vitamin A supplementation; vaccination against measles and rotavirus (that causes diarrhoea); promoting hygiene; use of clean drinking water, including treatment and safe storage of household water; community-wide improved sanitation, including use of toilets; appropriate use of fluids and continued feeding during diarrheal illness; and use of zinc.
Abbasi urged the media to help raise awareness about diarrhoea.
Journalist Sohail Waraich said pregnant women should be educated about the well being of newborns. “Those few months are the best time to teach not only a woman but also her husband.” He said awareness programmes should also be arranged for midwives. “Nations that do not take good care of their newborns, in fact do not care for their future,” he said.
Curtsey:The Express Tribune, April 29th, 2015.
Child rights: A neglected priority in Punjab
By Arshad Mahmood
The writer is a child rights activist and development practitioner with a Masters in Human Rights from the London School of Economics. He tweets @amahmood72
Child rights have never been a priority for any federal or provincial governments in Pakistan and the current government of Punjab is no exception. The recent deaths of newborns in Sargodha and Vehari have exposed the weak health system in the most developed province of Pakistan, which calls for urgent attention of policy and decision-makers.
Children’s right to health is an area that requires serious attention of the government of Punjab. The neonatal mortality rate is at high 63 per 1,000 live births in the province. Maternal mortality is 227 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, higher than that of India, Sri Lanka and Yemen. The high rates of neonatal and maternal mortality are consistent with the high levels of malnutrition in the province.
Frontline health workers like lady health workers (LHWs), community midwives and vaccinators have a pivotal role to play in improving the above-mentioned health indicators of the province. However, following the Eighteenth Amendment and devolution of vertical programmes like Family Planning and the Primary Health Care Programme, the situation is challenging, particularly with reference to the LHWs. The LHWs were regularised following a Supreme Court intervention. But the posts are becoming vacant owing to fast resignations. The government of Punjab should respond to the situation by recruiting more LHWs from its own resources and making budgetary allocations for necessary supplies to reach out to the uncovered areas of the province. Similarly, the Punjab government should also take responsibility and start allocating resources to increase the number of community midwives. To be able to ensure that every pregnant mother has access to a trained birth attendant while giving birth, Punjab will require an additional 15,000 midwives.
The Punjab Protection of Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition (Amendment) Act of 2012 has been enacted and recently, an Infant Feeding Board has been notified to ensure its implementation. The government of Punjab should immediately notify rules under the Breastfeeding Act of 2012 to ensure effective implementation of the law.
Following the Eighteenth Amendment in 2010, child rights have become a provincial subject. However, there is no body with a statutory status in Punjab to take care of this huge responsibility and ensure that child rights are protected and promoted in the province. The Child Rights Movement Punjab launched an advocacy campaign for establishing a Provincial Commission on the Rights of the Child (PCRC). It was heartening to listen to Ms Saba Sadiq, chairperson of the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau, and Rana Sanaullah during a Universal Children’s Day function at Lahore where both assured the establishment of the Punjab Commission on the Rights of the Child through an act of the Punjab Assembly.
Punjab is also home to approximately six million out-of-school childrenand requires serious steps in accordance with Article 25-A of the Constitution whereby education has been made a fundamental right for children between five and 16 years of age. As a very positive development, the Punjab Assembly recently enacted the Punjab Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014. There is a need, however, to notify the rules immediately besides allocation of sufficient financial resources to ensure its effective implementation immediately and to improve the poor conditions in government schools across the province. Published in The Express Tribune, February 3rd, 2015.
577 cases of child sexual abuse reported in six months in Punjab
Myra Imran
Islamabad
According to police data, 577 cases of child sexual abuse have been reported in first six months of 2015 only in Punjab.
These alarming facts made part of the report on Kasur incident by National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) shared with media on Monday. The report says that majority of the cases of child sexual abuses remain unreported.
A three-member fact-finding team of the NCHR visited Kasur district to meet the affected families, ascertain the facts and submit and investigational report besides monitoring of the investigation process. The findings were shared at a media briefing addressed by NHRC Chairperson Ali Nawaz Chowhan.
In its observations, the commission shared that children were sexually abused in village Hussain Khan Wala on large scale since 2010. Victims and parents were blackmailed. It says that perpetrators like those who abused children in Kasur thrive on our state of callousness and tendency to overlook issues considered taboo in our society.
It says that crime prevention mechanism and social protection mechanism of the state and their approaches towards situational crime prevention and social crime prevention failed in protecting innocent children. The report also condemned inappropriate use of anti-terrorism act against complainants causing fear of police-persecution and mistrust, leading towards social boycott to participate in investigation.
The NCHR chairperson said that to ensure speedy justice for the victims of Kasur incident, the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) would seek monthly progress report from the Chief Secretary Punjab in addition to initiating frequent interaction with Joint Investigation Committee through Inspector General Police office Punjab.
He requested the Punjab government to establish a trauma and counselling centre at Kasur. “The NCHR will work with DCO and DPO Kasur for trauma counselling of victims and their families in collaboration with civil society organisations and representatives of local people,” he shared with the media persons.
The NCHR chairperson also strongly recommended the federal government to take steps for expeditious enactment of The Criminal Law Amendment Bill 2009, National Commission on the Rights of Children Bill 2009, The Charter on the Child Rights Bill 2009 and to check flaws in the Police Act 2002.
The chairperson also talked about the limited resources available for the Commission. “Despite the fact that Commission in working without any human or financial resource, we are determined to take forward the agenda of human rights,” he said while expressing hope that the government would soon consider the hurdles in the way of the Commission for proper functioning.
The chairperson suggested the government to merge Human Rights Wing of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights with the Commission. “The Human Rights Wing has resource but they do not have mandate. It will be useful to combine mandate with resources,” he recommended. Curtsey:The News, Tuesday, October 06, 2015
Child rights: ‘Malnutrition costing more than energy crisis’
The event aimed to promote adequate nutrition as a basic human right by raising awareness among civil society organisations. LAHORE: Chronic malnutrition costs the economy an estimated 3% of GDP, which makes it a bigger problem than the energy crisis, which costs 2% of GDP, according to Dr Tausif Akhtar Janjua, the director of the Micronutrient Initiative.
“The noise about the energy crisis is huge, while on malnutrition there is almost nothing,” said Dr Janjua, speaking at a consultative session on Monday organised by the Development Partners for Nutrition (DPN) in Pakistan and the Child Rights Movement (CRIM) in the Punjab. He said that chronic malnutrition levels in Pakistan had not changed for 40 years.
The event aimed to promote adequate nutrition as a basic human right by raising awareness among civil society organisations.
“Nutrition was never considered a priority area and was always treated as a part of health care. However, we now know that health interventions alone cannot deal with the issue of malnutrition” said Imdad Naqvi from the CRM.
“Today, nearly half of Pakistan’s children and mothers suffer from under-nutrition. The situation is worse than that in much of sub-Saharan Africa,” said Dr Janjua.
“More than 350,000 children die in Pakistan every year before their fifth birthday and 35% of these deaths are due to malnutrition,” said Arshad Mahmood, director for advocacy and child rights governance at Save the Children.
He emphasised the importance of human rights organisations in addressing the issue of malnutrition in Pakistan. “Human rights and nutrition advocates share a primary concern for the individual human being and an interest in the role of public action in supporting a full and active life of dignity for all human beings. Adequate food and nutrition is the right of every citizen as enshrined in Article 38 of the Constitution of Pakistan, which states: ‘The State shall provide basic necessities of life, such as food, clothing, housing, education and medical relief,’” he said.
The government enacted the Punjab Protection of Breastfeeding and Young Child Nutrition (Amendment) Act 2012, but the rules of application for the law was and the Infant Feeding Board were yet to be set up. The government should also finalise and notify the Provincial Nutrition Strategy, Mahmood said.
Dr Akhtar Rasheed, the provincial coordinator for the Lady Health Workers Programme, briefed the participants on the government’s attempts to improve the nutrition situation.
He said that the government would encourage birth spacing and iron supplements in the high-risk districts in southern Punjab. The provincial government is committed to reducing growth stunting from 39% to 34% and wasting from 14% to 12%, and increasing exclusive breastfeeding from 22% to 40%, by 2016.
The presentations were followed by discussion about how civil society can effectively advocate for the right to adequate food and nutrition and implementation of laws like the Punjab Protection of Breastfeeding and Young Child Nutrition (Amendment) Act 2012. The participants agreed to move forward with a joint action plan at the policy and implementation levels.
In his concluding remarks, Dr Tahir Manzoor of Unicef emphasised the importance of the role of civil society and media in highlighting the issue of nutrition and advocating for the implementation of policy and legislation. Curtsey:The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2013.
Unclear policy on children rights
LAHORE: A consultative meeting has expressed its concern over delay in approval and adoption of child protection policy that could be a roadmap to act in a structured way to ensure protection of children from all forms of abuse and exploitation.
The meeting was organised at a local hotel by the Civil Society Network working for the child rights in the province.
Legal and human rights expert Asad Jamal sought devising a mechanism to ensure implementation of the UNCRC and other human rights related commitments made by the government. He also stressed ban on child domestic labour by making necessary amendments to “The Children’s Employment Act 1991” and if there is any technical problem then special legislation should be made to address the issue.
MPA Ms Marry Gill said the Punjab government was going to increase the minimum age of marriage for girls in compliance with international obligations. She said it had been decided to establish an independent commission to protect rights of children.
“The commission would also take on board all relevant departments and authorities to ensure the protection of children from abuse and exploitation,” she added.
Ali Imran sought intervention by the civil society to influence policymakers to create a favourable change in the lives of children.
Advocate Syed Farhad Ali Shah assured that the Punjab Bar Council would play its due role in proposed legislation i.e., The Punjab Restriction of Children’s Employment Act and any other law.
Atif Khan suggested that there was a dire need to establish a monitoring authority within the structure of the Punjab police which would ensure the transparent investigation of child abuse cases.
Child rights activist Iftikhar Mubarik said 2015 was being celebrated as 25th anniversary of Pakistan’s ratification to Child Rights Convention and still lot of efforts and actions were required by the government to ensure implementation of that convention. Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2015
Seven more children die in Thar, drought toll rises to 34
HANIF SAMOON
At least 200 children were admitted to hospitals for treatment, while dozens died before they could receive medical aid. - Online/File
MITHI: At least six more children lost their lives in the drought-hit Thar desert on Saturday, raising the death toll to 33 this month, while more that 200 children have been admitted to several hospitals of the district for treatment.
Three children died in a remote village of Diplo taluka before they could be taken to hospital, while another lost his life at Civil Hospital Mithi.
Earlier, deaths of children were reported from Nagarparkar, Mithi, Islamkot and Diplo.
Provincial food minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, who is also a member of the committee formed on Thursday by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah to look into the situation, has been in Mithi town to visit the admitted children.
Talking to local journalists at the Deputy Commissioner's office, he claimed that the Sindh government was "fully committed to provide maximum facilities" in the health units of the drought-hit desert.
Nasir Shah admitted that there was a drought-like situation but considered the media's portrayal of the situation as "alarming" an exaggeration.
The Thar region of Sindh, which has climatic and ecological conditions similar to the Indian state of Rajasthan’s portion of Thar, faces severe droughts for two to three years in every 10-year cycle.
He expressed grief over the death of children and said that hospitals and health units would be given "top priority" by the five-member committee formed by Sindh government.
Nasir Shah also directed officials of the revenue department to suspend the ongoing collection of agriculture taxes from farmers and reimburse any taxes collected from them in recent days.
After receiving a detailed report from DC Tharparkar, the provincial minister said he would ask Qaim Ali Shah to declare Thar as drought-hit area and announce a relief package for the affected population, along with the monetary compensation for the heirs of the dying children.
Nasir Shah said he was looking into the matter and constantly receiving feedback from government officials. He said that all announcements made by the Sindh chief minister would "immediately be implemented".
Furthermore, he said that the Thar Development Authority, envisaged and drafted by the Sindh government earlier after the deaths of the children in 2014, would be formed soon to develop proper infrastructure and civic facilities in the district and improve living standards of residents.
MNA Fakeer Sher Mohammad Bilalani, MPA Dr Mehesh Kumar Malani, Adviser to CM Inayat Rahimoon and other PPP officials were also present during the briefing.
However, members of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Thar Ittehad were not invited to the meeting by the local administration. Curtsey:DAWN.COM,December 9,2016
311 Thar children died in 11 months: report
HASAN MANSOOR
A doctor attending to a child from Tharparkar at Civil Hospital Hyderabad.- Online
KARACHI: A latest report prepared by the provincial government vis-à-vis the drought situation in Thar shows that 311 children under five years of age have died between December, 2013 and November this year, it emerged on Sunday.
The report, submitted in the Sindh High Court by the chief secretary after the approval of Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah last week, shows the main causes of death of the children include birth asphyxia, pre-term, low birth weight, respiratory distress syndrome, pneumonia, delivery of babies through traditional birth attendants (Daais)that caused neo-natal sepsis and diarrhoea.
It classifies the casualties of the same children according to their ages, which shows that 118 children who died were newborn babies (one day age), 82 children died were of age two days to one month, 28 children of age 1.5 months to three months and 29 were those whose age ranged between eight months and one year.
The report, however, says Thar, as regards the under five year death rate, was comparatively better than Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Rajanpur, Rahimyarkhan and other neighbouring districts in Punjab. “However the challenges are same.”
The report says that the Thar communities, particularly women, lack awareness of their health concerns.
Majority of the married couple has an average of eight children.
“In view of the aforementioned facts where women is overburdened, takes unbalanced / proteins, fats deficient diet in their meals, shorter birth gaps [deliveries of babies at regular intervals] pose a severe threat for both the newborn as well as the mother,” it says.
The report insisted that the diet of the Thar community today was similar to the one they used to take in the past and the antenatal care was missing.
“The community prefers administration of IV injections over treatment through oral administration of medicines. Simple medicines like Folic Acid, Fefol-Vit beneficial for a pregnant woman, though are available in abundance in the health institutes of the district but despite being provided, their intake is not witnessed as a result of which the pregnant lady and the newborns are at high risk.”
The report claimed that the health department ran health institutes at different tiers across the district besides expanding the network of health centres at micro level, but an extensive awareness programme needed to be launched by all relevant stakeholders such as health, family planning departments, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations (CSOs) to redress issues such as periodical health care, particularly during pregnancy, use of medicines for increasing the immunity of pregnant women and her child to be born, communication and observance of a normal birth gap between the two children, conduct of day-to-day normal activities, thereby helping in attaining a quality life cycle.
According to the report, the Thar district is a huge district spread over an area of 22,000 square kilometres desert land with scattered settlements and has ever remained vulnerable to drought situation due to the fact that the district has no irrigation infrastructure and it entirely relies on rainfall. This vast distance and tough terrain makes it an uphill task for people to access health and civic facilities, which are present in relatively well-settled cities of Thar.
In 2013, it said, Sindh in general and Thar region in particular did not receive adequate rainfall during the monsoon. During monsoon 2014, only parts of Thar (Mithi and Islamkot) received scattered and somehow heavy rainfall, which minimised the impacts of drought in the region for the time being.
However, the Thar region as a whole did not receive adequate rainfall which was needed. In quantifiable terms, Thar received lesser average rainfalls of 100 millimetres during the monsoon season this year than the last year’s average recorded rain of 189mm, contrary to an average required rainfall of 277mm.
“Thus, the drought situation in true terms has actually evolved this year.”
It said due to drought conditions proneness, the district encountered multiple issues that adversely impacted the livelihood of the people.
It counted some key factors for the situation, which included water scarcity resulting in non-maturity of grass and crops, which in turn affected the livelihood of people and posed a threat for the survival of their livestock; overburdened women on account of their involvement in domestic affairs and their contribution in earning of livelihood; reliance on vegetables on account of their religious beliefs by majority due to which lack of requisite calorific/nutritional values; lack of awareness particularly in health issues such as high growth rate due to absence of birth gaps; and scattered settlements.
The report says majority of the people living in Thar are Hindu, who being a strong believer of their religion do not eat red meat, fish, chicken and relies on vegetables and other local products. The vegetables have not requisite energy thus their intake of proteins/energy/fats and other requisite calorific values is relatively lesser to a major extent.
The report examines that the Thari people use chillies and dairy products as their intake for the reasons that they hold huge quantity of livestock and the use of chillies is their traditional pattern. Thus, another factor for weaknesses in women revolves around the non-consumption of proteins-rich diet as well as following their cultural patterns which increase their weakness to a greater extent.
The report mentioned several steps taken by the provincial government to provide relief to the people of Thar, the first and foremost of which was the declaration of the district as calamity affected in February this year which started with focus on free wheat supply, health facilitation, treatment, vaccination of livestock and provision of fodder.
It said the district administration compiled a list of 253,590 families to facilitate with wheat supply of 50-kg bag each, which it completed in three phases of free wheat distribution from March to October.
Regarding complaints pertaining to faulty wheat distribution and favouritism etc, the report claimed that the government provided free wheat relief for 253,580 families in each of the first three phases.
Comparing with the registered head of families data available with the National Database Registration Authority, it said Nadra maintained a record of 237,731 head of families in its database, while the government considered 253,580 families for distribution of wheat in the first three phases.
After the declaration of the district as calamity affected, the provincial government had increased the allocation to 129,973 bags of 100 kg free wheat from 126,790 bags each of the two phases, as a result of which number of families had accordingly increased to 259,946.
It said the question of un-served families with respect to free wheat relief ‘has been satisfactorily catered’.
The report said in addition to this, the government had directed the provincial disaster management authority to engage an independent third-party firm for conducting a door-to-door survey of the district to ensure that the relief measures were effective and efficient. Curtsey:DAWN.COM,December 15th, 2014
‘Child marriage a rights abuse’
LAHORE
THE Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) and Action Aid Pakistan in collaboration with the Social Work Department and Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) organised a seminar on child marriages in Pakistan on Wednesday on LCWU campus.
Speakers at the seminar declared child marriages to be a human rights abuse and against laws laid down by various international rights conventions which Pakistan had signed and ratified including the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). They said marriage for girls in developing countries could be a major cause of death amongst 15-19 year-old girls. Girls who are married at young age are also exposed to sexually transmitted diseases and infections including HIV Aids.
The participants of the seminar also urged the Punjab Assembly to pass the ‘Early Child Marriage Bill’ to curb the rise in forced child marriages in the country. Pakistan Peoples Party’s Member Punjab Assembly (MPA) Faiza Malik, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s MPA Nosheen Hamid, Chairperson Provincial Commission on Status of Women (PCSW) Fouzia Waqar and regional head SPO Salman Abid spoke on the occasion. The event was also attended by a large number of students along with LCWU faculty and representatives from civil society. MPA Faiza Malik in her speech said it was the responsibility of both provincial and federal governments to introduce legislation on women rights that would make it illegal for females in Pakistan to be married before the age of 18. Malik stressed the need for developing mental faculties in females in deciding whether they were fit to take on duties and responsibilities that accompanied marriage.
“Due to early child marriages, a woman’s health is badly affected. They face many health problems and it may lead to death in some cases,” said MPA Nosheen Hamid. Chairperson PCSW Fouzia Waqar shared her concerns regarding early child marriages and emphasised that there should be proper laws to protect young girls from acts of gender discrimination. She insisted on the proper execution of human rights law in Pakistan.
Salman Abid, regional head SPO, said the issue of child marriage raised several health concerns for young girls, some of which included pregnancy complications, health risks for babies born to young mothers and the risk of death. The orthodox traditional practices of early child marriages certainly attributes to gender inequalities, said
Abid. Head of Social Work Department at Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) Irum Shahid shared her note of thanks to all the guest speakers and student. Curtsey:The News, Thursday, May 08, 2014
High-ups play down child abuse scandal
AFZAL ANSARI
KASUR: The administration had the audacity to rub salt into the wounds of Kasur people on Saturday by playing down the magnitude of the child abuse scandal that has left them devastated since it came to light last month.
The district police officer disputed media reports that the number of children affected was almost 300, basing his claim on a flimsy ground that only seven “complainants have approached us so far”.
Furthermore, he linked the scandal to a land dispute between two groups.
But the bravest of all was Rana Sanaullah, a minister in the Punjab cabinet. With a straight face, he dismissed the entire episode as “baseless”, according to Dawn.com.
Talking to newsmen, Rai Babbar, the DPO, said there were “certain misperceptions” about the scandal.
It was reported that about 280 children, most of them less than 14-year-old, of Husain Khanwala village, about 5km from Kasur, were sexually abused and filmed. Their families had been blackmailed, too.
Rai Babar said six of the accused would be challaned after completion of their remand of 14 days.
He said other five accused nominated in the FIR were on bail.
Mr Babar denied any political pressure in the case and said a joint investigation team constituted by the Punjab chief minister would complete its job in a week.
He said police had not found any proof that the number of victims ran into hundreds. “Announcements were made from mosques asking the victims to come to the police station and lodge complaints without any fear,” he said.
The DPO said only seven complainants had so far approached the police to lodge cases. The videos had been received from complainants, he added.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ordered arrest of the remaining accused named in the FIR.
He issued the orders after receiving the report of the JIT comprising Additional IG Operations Arif Nawaz Khan and Lahore Commissioner Abdulla Khan Sumbal.
The accused and their families had left the village, while protesters were also reluctant to remain there after a clash with police, leaving about 15 policemen injured.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan expressed shock at the scandal and said some of the parents, who accused the Punjab police of being hands in glove with perpetrators of the crime, had been arrested.
He said: “If we cannot protect our children and police give protection to perpetrators of the crime we will become an inhumane society.”
He called for immediate arrest of and exemplary punishment for the guilty and protection for young children across the country.
The DPO said the recovered videos showed that both the victims and the accused were under the age of 15. They are now grown-ups.
He said the years’ old matter had surfaced because of a dispute over an expensive state land and a political and local tussle, while some mischievous elements were adding fuel to the fire.
Mr Babar said the victims were in some of the videos and the accused in others. It was a group of boys and their activities were confined to them rather than to hundreds of children, he added. Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2015
Video:LAB PE ATI HAI DUA
Save Our Children: Pakistan losing battle against hunger, disease
According to the PDH Survey 2006-07, Pakistani children are more likely to die young in rural areas. PHOTO: ONLINE ISLAMABAD: Children are dying all over the country for lack of medical facilities and food supplies. Yet no-one is taking their plight seriously.
“I lost my three children due to lack of neonatal resources, but no one has helped me so far,” said Prem Chandar, 34, who lost his third baby due to malnutrition in the Goth Haryar village of Mithi, Tharparkar, last month. “Our children are dying due to starvation. Is it not strange? We are a nuclear power but our children do not have sufficient food to eat.”
Chandar’s newborn lived only three days. Like the parents of 964 children who died in their infancy, Chandar was unable to save his child.
Figures obtained from multiple governmental and non-governmental organisations by The Express Tribune reveal that around 352,000 children who are under the age of five die every year in the country. Chandar, with his wife Sanjhari and two sick children, migrated to Mithi town in the hope to save them at a time when more than 330 children died due to malnutrition in Sindh, particularly in Tharparkar, this year. More than 1,800 children have died of measles and other epidemics in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Balochistan this year, figures reveal.
Pakistan has the highest rate of first-day deaths and stillbirths at 40.7 per 1,000 births, and 28,000 mothers die every year during childbirth, show reports prepared by the PDH Survey, the World Health Organisation and Save the Children and United Nations’ Children Fund. More than 204, 542 children died within 28 days only, the figures show.
According to the PDH Survey 2006-07, Pakistani children are more likely to die young in rural areas.
Instead of decrease, this dismal rate had been static at 55 per 1,000 live births in 2012-13, said Arshad Mahmood, Director Advocacy and Child Rights Governance. “The first moments of a child’s life are the most dangerous, yet almost 50 per cent mothers give birth without any skilled help in Pakistan. It’s tragic that many of these 200,000 annual newborn deaths in Pakistan could be averted simply by having someone around to make sure the birth took place safely.”
Experts said the federal and provincial governments should prioritise newborn health, come up with newborn health strategies and make budgetary allocations for health and nutrition, he added. Unfortunately, provincial health and child welfare departments were unable to provide any data about deaths of children in provinces.
Senior officials at the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau Punjab and K-P, and the Sindh Social Welfare Department for Children also revealed that they are yet to call any meeting on the recent deaths of children dying due to measles and malnutrition in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab.
A Pakistan Peoples Party MNA, who is also a member of the standing committee on health, admitted that they had not called any meeting on children’s deaths in Tharparkar or in Awaran district of Balochistan without explaining the reasons. He, however, claimed that the Sindh government had taken up this issue as an emergency.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MNA Maiza Hameed, who admitted that child mortality rate in Pakistan, remains unchanged since 1994, claimed that the government was vigilant regarding health issues. Hameed was hopeful that lawmakers would take up this issue in parliament.
Experts stress upon the implementation of the National Health Programme 2010-15. They believe the National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Healthcare could not meet its goals due to scarcity of funds and manpower.
According to the official data, around 120,000 lady health workers (LHWs) are currently working and the LHW programme which can help save lives of mothers and infants needs Rs77 billion to achieve its goals.
“In order to ensure that a skilled birth attendant is present for every mother giving birth, 15,000 Community Midwives are required to be deployed in Punjab and Sindh each,” observed Dr Nand Lal, Incharge Child Department, Hyderabad Civil Hospital. Poverty in Balochistan, southern Punjab and interior Sindh was a major stumbling block in achieving goals of better health services. He urged the WHO and Unicef to restart their child welfare programmes in Pakistan.
Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi’s regional manager for Punjab, Farhan Amir, claimed that around 300 children had died of poor health services in five districts of southern Punjab. Thousands of children are suffering from diarrhea, infections and eye problems due to natural calamities like floods, he added.
“We have barely eaten in days and I am worried about my children. But there are no medicines and no dispensary within a day’s walk,” he observed. He blamed the government for not taking any steps for the protection of children in poorer districts of Punjab. Curtsey:The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2014.
Video:Four children died from famine at diplo Tharparka: death toll rises to 61
Heart of darkness-Child victims and the media
Alia Chughtai
Why doesn’t the media push forward stories to help our child victims fight for justice? With the approaching one year anniversary of the Army Public School massacre, we are sure to see on our TV screens, reporters shoving microphones in the faces of the victims’ families. The same inane question, “Aap ko kehsa mehsoos ho raha hai” will be flung from one bulletin to the next.
For those of us who work in the media this has now become standard practice. Private moments on air, for all to see; crying parents, siblings being asked about what their brothers would have done had they been alive.
And, while I expect the media coverage to be regrettably crass, I am grateful that at least no has forgotten. Losing 144 of Pakistan’s future in one of the most deadly attacks ever is not something to be brushed aside.
But what about the other children?
The Kasur incident is single-handedly the biggest scandal of child sex abuse to have rocked Pakistan where over 208 children were forced to perform sexual acts that were videotaped.
Soon after the news came out, an abandoned ‘haveli’ was found to have evidence that ropes and other ghastly objects were used to hang childrenfrom its roof as they were filmed.
Over 208 of Pakistan’s future which is still alive and breathing seem to have been all but forgotten.
Why has so little been done to bring the perpetrators of Kasur to justice?
Have we been speaking about how, if at all, they are dealing with the trauma that comes with sexual abuse?
Do stories of sexually abused children not even warrant a follow-up?
Sexual abuse not only leaves people scarred for life, it takes away the very essence of pleasure. This feeling can lead to the victim adopting several kinds of destructive ways of life and in extreme cases, the abused can also become abusers.
The victims of the Kasur tragedy need love and they deserve justice. But it looks like we are refusing to give them either.
Shoving microphones into their faces and asking how they feel isn’t going to take us anywhere. It comes down to lawmakers and leaders to ensure that all the children of this country are protected.
The website of Sahil — an organisation that works to ensure child safety from all forms of violence — has a poll that asks visitors if they have suffered any kind of sexual abuse.
The results show a whopping 79.56 per cent have voted yes to being sexually abused or harassed in one or more of the following ways; voyeurism, exhibitionism, fondling, sodomy/rape, kissing, pornography, sexual comments or oral sex. Furthermore, according to Sahil.org’s findings, one out of every 10 children in Pakistan has been a victim of sexual abuse.
Take a moment here to let that sink in. Rape
Hundreds of children suffer sexual abuse in Pakistan every single day. For instance, the case of attempted sodomy in which a young boy jumped out of the window to avoid being raped, or the fake confession by a muezzin of the murder of a six-year-old boy in a seminary.
Did the media follow up on why the fake confession was made at the press conference in the presence of the police and TV reporters in the first place?
Amir Liaquat’s laughter still rings in my ears when a female caller asked in his programme for advice on a scenario that involved her being sexually abused. This is how pretty much all of us, the media and the citizens, have dealt with Pakistan’s most heinous of offences.
No one really cares or even tries to understand the lives of the victims of sexual abuse or how one incident can alter the course of someone’s entire life. Forced conversions
There are countless reports of kidnappings and forced conversions of minor girls from religious minority communities. But it seems none of these offences are ‘good enough’ for the media to highlight for justice.
On the 2nd of October this year, an 11-year-old Hindu girl was kidnapped in Nawabshah — an FIR was filed a whole two days later. The girl remains missing, and is said have to been forced to marry the person who abducted her.
In Sanghar, on the 8th of July, a 15-year-old Hindu girl was kidnapped and forced to convert. Her family is still waiting to hear if she is safe.
But, it seems that these stories will not get the media attention they should because they do not bring in the ratings.
After all, what chance does the plight of a few poor people stand against a celebrity divorce when it comes to what passes for headlines in this country? That ‘5-spice mix’
The more I look at the Pakistani media and how it works nowadays, the more it seems that they follow a routine recipe to assess and use a news story: ratings ka namak, sales ki daarchini, reporter ke contact ka masala, NLEka shashka garnish and some cross border soap opera mirch.
No lives will be altered if we continue to give away airtime to empty CCTV footage. We must bear in mind though that no matter how many roads we may build, funded by whomsoever our heart desires, no matter how much progress we make — it is the country’s children who are the torchbearers of our future.
What kind of future are we looking at when we fail our children? Curtsey:DAWN.COM, Dec 12, 2015
Kasur scandal: 'I thought of killing myself everyday'
REUTERS
Children whose families say have been abused, turn their backs to the camera while they are interviewed in their village of Husain Khan Wala, Punjab province, Pakistan August 9, 2015. -REUTERS/Mohsin Raza
HUSSAINWALA: Parents at the centre of a growing child abuse scandal in the country accused police on Monday of failing to do enough to break up a paedophile ring in Punjab.
Accounts of abuse in the central Punjabi village of Husain Khan Wala were splashed across the front pages of local newspapers over the weekend, and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to be questioned on the topic in parliament.
Villagers told Reuters that a prominent family there has for years forced children to perform sex acts on video. The footage was sold or used to blackmail their impoverished families.
Rubina Bibi says her 13-year-old son was a victim, but when she tried to file a report at the Ganda Singh Wala police station a month and a half ago, "the police station clerk told me to get lost and I was thrown out."
"My son ... is in the videos, he is a victim," she said. "Our children were forced into this. They were humiliated. But the police are treating them like criminals."
Another mother, Shakila Bibi, added: "I went to the police station to file a complaint, but instead of registering a (report), they took my son into
custody." Her 15-year-old son is still in jail, she said. If an inquiry found inadequate police work or complicity, the scandal could engulf the provincial government, headed by the prime minister's brother.
Children whose families say have been abused, hide their faces while their mothers are interviewed by a Reuters correspondent in their village of Husain Khan Wala, Punjab province, Pakistan August 9, 2015. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza
District Police Officer Rai Babar said the force would act decisively. "I assure you that we are taking this very seriously and there will be a fair and very transparent investigation," he told Reuters.
On Sunday, Sharif said in a statement: "The Prime Minister ... has expressed extreme sadness ... the culprits will be given the harshest possible punishment."
Villagers say hundreds of children were affected, although they were unable to give names of particular families.
Police have arrested seven suspects, but downplayed the scale of the abuse, suggesting a land dispute may have sparked accusations. "It's a very murky situation," said Babar. He added that seven cases involving 11 children had been registered.
Activist Mobeen Ghaznavi says many children were abused and that he had 130 video clips containing abuse. "People are afraid. They are being threatened and intimidated," he said.
Suraiya Bibi said that when she complained to police, her family was threatened by the abusers.
"One day some women in the village showed me these videos. My son was in them. My world collapsed," she said. "Kids were being intimidated in these videos with weapons, they were drugged. Kids as young as five years old were made to perform oral sex."
In one clip seen by Reuters, a boy cowers and cries before putting his hands over the camera lens. In another, a groggy boy is beaten and abused as a man tells him, "I will not stop until you smile."
Three 15-year-old boys told Reuters they were abused for several years.
Two said they were threatened with weapons that included knife, an axe and a gun. "He threatened me if I did not compromise, he would kill me on the spot," one said.
One 18-year-old told Reuters he had been abused since he was 10. He stole cash and jewellery from his family after his abusers blackmailed him, he said. "I was going to school one day when these boys picked me up and beat me up badly. Then they drugged me, and when I woke up, they showed me these videos they had made of me," he said.
"They told me that they would bury me alive if I told anyone ... I thought about killing myself every single day." Curtsey:DAWN.COM,AUG 10, 2015
Accused says children abused in his presence
INTIKHAB HANIF
People gather on Sunday after Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced a judicial probe into the child abuse scandal.—M. Arif/White Star
KASUR: There was no confession in the serial child abuse case in Kasur’s Husain Khanwala village but the principal accused gave a strange twist to the happenings by saying that he used to be present when the crimes were committed and filmed in a classroom of the academy where he and those captured in the clips studied.
Media reports suggested that the accused had confessed to their crime, but Kasur’s DPO Rai Baber Saeed told Dawn that no confession had been made. He said police were investigating the matter and would submit a report to the court.
The only development he reported was the arrest of another accused, Usman. Six others, including the principal accused, Haseem Amir, were arrested on Thursday.
The DPO said there were nearly 15 accused in the seven FIRs registered. Police are conducting raids to arrest another two accused while the remaining were on bail.
This reporter met the accused in Kasur’s Police Station B Division where they are being kept instead of the Ganda Singhwal Police Station for security reasons. Six of them are in their early 20s and the seventh, Abdul Mannan, says he is 14 years old.
They all said they were innocent. The principal accused, Haseem, 25, said he was innocent because none of the films seized by police showed him indulging in any abuse. When asked whether he used to film the child abuse, he said he would sit in the classroom where his classmates would commit the crime.
He claimed that he and others had been implicated in the case because some people wanted to grab 16.50 acres of land his family had purchased.
Others did not come up with any such reason. Ali Majid said the one Mubin who had raised the issue allegedly to grab the land had abused him and wanted his father to stop cultivating fodder there.
The villagers, victims and their relatives who said they had kept quiet because of fear and shame were now openly talking about what they called the brazen deeds of the accused. There was no more fear of the accused or shame as they were readily giving details of the events.
There were no police in the village, but plainclothesmen were there to keep an eye on the mood of the villagers.
The fear was no more there because of one Mubin Ghaznavi, reportedly a former Jamaat-i-Islami worker who continued to urge the victims and their families to stick to their allegations. Two lawyers – Latif Sohra from Lahore and Chaudhry Munir – were also seen in the village and were reportedly supporting the victims.
Some people, including Lambardar Saifullah, alleged that the JI man and the two lawyers were after the 16.50 acres of irrigated land which the family of the principal accused known as Karmoo group had purchased. But they could not satisfy many as to how one could ask people to say that they had been sodomised for settling the score.
Punjab chief minister orders judicial probe
The allegation was that Mobin wanted some NGOs to build a school and other facilities for villagers on the land and lawyer Chaudhry Munir was with him.
Mubin and the two lawyers denied that they were supporting the villagers. Mubin said the accused were his relatives and he was angry because they had also abused children of their own family. Latif Sohra claimed that the victims had visited them in Lahore for legal help and he engaged his friend Chaudhry Munir for assistance.
“Look at the abused youngsters. Can one make them confess to an act which will haunt them all their lives,” Mubin said.
He said police and those supporting the accused were levelling such allegations to confuse the issue. The government should impartially look into the matter, he added.
The Karmoo group, it is alleged, had the backing of people mostly in government departments and courts.
Mubin said he had nearly 150 clips of the child abuse. Young girls were also assaulted, “but we are not sharing their clips to save their families from ignominy. Police have much more but they are trying to marginalise the issue,” he claimed. He said the father, brothers and uncles of the principal accused also used to abuse children.
Haseem claimed in the lockup that police had one clip showing the rape of a girl. But he said the victims were also abusing each other.
Women and their young relatives felt no hesitation in telling their side of the story. One Amna said his brother Abdul Mannan had been kidnapped at gunpoint by Haseem when he was seven. He was taken to Haseem’s haveli, intoxicated and abused by him and others. The scene was filmed for blackmailing. “We have given them a total of Rs800,000 on different occasions.”
Danish Ali, 18, a student of Lahore’s National College of Arts, said he had been picked when he was nine. He repeated the allegations and said the accused used to extort money from him till recently by threatening to release the clips. He would also be forced to abuse children picked by Haseem in the meantime.
And as the villagers, including women and the victims, were sticking to their claims, none of them could quote even a single incident in which a victim was found injured or sick after the criminal assault by more than one man.
“We were silenced. I was hurt but I would not tell anyone for fear of my life and safety of my family. They also used to make me entice more children for abuse,” one of them said.
And there was a story to tell how the alleged racket was exposed. According to the villagers, Haseem gave his mobile phone to a cousin while playing volleyball and the cousin who knew about the crime stole his memory card. Clips from the memory card went around in the village and to those who dared seek justice, they said.
They said the RPO had come to Ganda Singhwala a month ago and constituted an investigation team under the SP investigation but it never completed its report. Had it been done, the matter would not have been agitated with so much force, they said.
According to them, 400 to 500 children were abused.
Our Correspondent Afzal Ansari in Kasur adds: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ordered on Sunday a judicial inquiry into the matter.
He was to visit the village on Sunday morning, but cancelled the trip, reportedly because of security reasons. The chief minister wanted the bereaved families and the victims to come to Kasur city, but they refused.
Sunday was the day for political leaders to express solidarity with the victims and families. However, no MPA or MNA visited the village.
JI EMIR’S VISIT: Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Sirajul Haq said the incident was the worst example of terrorism and barbarism and urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take sue motto notice.
He also demanded a judicial commission on the matter and called for speedy trial of the accused.
He said that in view of the severity of the case, sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act should be included in the FIRs. He said a case registered against the villagers after a clash with police a few days age should be immediately withdrawn.
The JI chief said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should have visited Kasur to express sympathy with the victims’ families.
PTI leader Mahmoodur Rasheed also visited the village and demanded a speedy trial of the case and exemplary punishment for the accused. He accused police of protecting the accused.
Jahan Arra, daughter of PPP leader Manzoor Watto, met the victims’ families and assured them that the matter would be raised at every platform.
A team of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek, which visited the village, said the child abuse case should be referred to a military court. Led by retired Maj Saeed and Nurullah Siddiqui, it said Punjab should be handed over to Rangers because the provincial government and its police had failed to protect life and honour of the people. Curtsey:DAWN.COM, August 10th, 2015
Tow DSPs among 25 injured as mob takes on police
AFZAL ANSARI
KASUR: A pitched battle between police and protesters left 25 people, including two DSPs, injured near Dolaywala village along Deepalpur Road on Tuesday.
Hundreds of people hailing from Husain Khanwala and other villages demonstrated against police for their alleged failure to smash a gang suspected of raping hundreds of children and extorting money from their parents by blackmailing them through videos.
The gang had been involved in the activity since 2009 and a property dispute brought the issue to surface. Police have registered seven cases against 15 people and arrested six of them.
The villagers were planning to protest in front of the Lahore Press Club and stage a sit-in near the Punjab Assembly and accordingly announcements were made after the Friday sermons in Husain Khanwala and surrounding villages this past week but the death of a villager caused delay in the plan. Later, the villagers were informed through mobile phones that they would protest against police on Tuesday.
RPO assures protesters of arrests in ghastly case
On Monday night, police held negotiations with the potential troublemakers and arrested two more suspects on Tuesday morning to pacify the villagers but in vain. Police cordoned off the roads leading to the village to stop the protesters who emerged on six vans, three tractor-trolleys and scores of motorcycles.
As a police contingent tried to stop the mob led by Mobeen Ahmed, the latter pelted stones and resorted to aerial firing. Police tear-gassed and baton-charged the crowd which went berserk and damaged private and official vehicles on Deepalpur Road. The protesters also snatched SMG (short machine gun rifle) from a police constable.
The clash left DSPs Hassan Farooq Ghumman and Arif Rasheed, Ganda Singh SHO Akmal Kausar, cops Akbar, Sajid, Riaz, Naeem, Ahmed Ali, Akbar Ghani and Muhammad Akmal besides 15 of the protesters injured. The injured were taken to the DHQ Hospital.
Later, the protesters again gathered at Kashmir Chowk and lambasted police. At New Bus Terminal on Ferozepur Road, Regional Police Officer Sahibzada Shahzad Sultan, MPA Malik Ahmed Saeed, DPO Rai Babar Saeed and SP Investigation Muhammad Nadeem Abbas negotiated with the protesters who finally dispersed on the assurance of the RPO that their representatives would be allowed to have a meeting with Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif within four to five days. He also pledged arrest of the remaining suspects.
The injured policemen obtained medico-legal certificates (MLCs) from the hospital. No case was registered till last reports came in.
It is learnt that police have got video-recordings of rape of children but they claim that this evidence shows many victims have turned perpetrators and it will take time to investigate the case. Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2015
Fact-finding report shows child protection bills remain pending in parliament. PHOTO: ONLINE ISLAMABAD: Police showed ineptitude and failed to take action over the horrific Kasur child abuse case, which amounts to not only criminal negligence but also connivance, the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) has said.
The NCHR released on Monday a report by a fact-finding committee that it had formed soon after the Kasur child abuse case.
“The Kasur episode is a clear manifestation of the decadence in our moral values and a failure of political, and religious leadership, law enforcing agencies, and neighborhood watch,” the committee’s chairperson Chief Justice (retd.) Ali Nawaz Chowhan said at the news conference. He suggested that sociologists must diagnose the causes of these failures in an Islamic society and propose curative measures so that recurrence of such incidents can be checked.
In the report, the NCHR has asked the Punjab Police chief to investigate the callous ineptitude and criminal negligence in preventing child sexual abuse in Kasur and prosecute all those who were involved and responsible. NCHR said that it will monitor the proceedings and sought a progress report from Punjab Chief Secretary on a monthly basis on the proceedings of the joint investigation committee under his command. The Punjab Prosecutor General has been asked to appoint well-trained and experienced prosecutors and that his office monitors the progress on legal and judicial proceedings.
The NCHR also observed that Pakistan lacks an internationally-accepted rights-based child protection mechanism at the national, provincial, and local levels. The commission has also strongly recommended that the federal government take steps for the expeditious passage of pending bills that pertain to child protection in the country. The laws included in the report are Criminal Laws Amendment Bill 2009, National Commission on the Rights of Children Bill 2009, and The Charter on the Child Rights Bill 2009. It also recommended that the federal government check flaws in the Police Act of 2002. Published in The Express Tribune, October 6th, 2015.
Fathers will continue to murder their 12-year-old daughters
By Abira Ashfaq
The father and brother of the child had beaten her to death for not making the chapattis properly. PHOTO: EXPRESS
The statistics available on domestic violence and other forms of violence against women are startling. According to a NIPS survey, 37 per cent of those surveyed experienced violence – 57 per cent in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
More than half of the women who have ever experienced physical violence have never sought help or told anyone about the violence. Forty three per cent of women stated that a husband is justified in beating his wife if she argues with him, neglects the children, refuses to have sex with him, goes out without telling him, neglects the in-laws, or burns the food.
The stories highlighted by the media are enough to cause a nationwide outrage and protest– but they don’t.
How deeply is women’s lower status internalised?
How deep is our acceptance of violence towards women, girls and the weak?
The terrible tales show up with regularity – a father beating his daughter to death outside the Lahore courthouse, a girl beaten to death and tossed aside for not making a round roti (bread), women assaulted for exercising in parks in Sahiwal, a police constable indecently assaulting a street child and threatening her brother, a father killing his daughter for honour. Lack of implementation
While domestic and sexual violence against women and girls is not new to Pakistan, the state’s role in condoning it is. Punjab and K-P have resisted enacting statues criminalising domestic violence, despite Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) tall claims for positive change.
Enacting laws are the first step towards recognising domestic violence. Even though most forms of domestic violence would come within the ambit of existing offences, such as rape, manslaughter and murder. Specifically labelling these crimes as crimes of domestic violence through special enactments reflects parliament’s commitment to prosecute the offenders.
Of course laws are not enough. Any lay person can tell you that, we have the laws, but there is no implementation. From living rooms to NGO offices, and corporate board rooms, you will hear this chant. This incapacity to implement is rooted in the absence of effective mechanisms that would allow successful prosecution.
These include free legal aid and support services including shelter for the victims. However, it’s never as simple as having a lawyer and a safe haven from abuse, as other states’ inadequacies kick in. Going to trial requires the litigant to aspire justice at a fundamental level to withstand docket delays, long waits, and unsatisfactory verdicts with patience.
I once met an older couple at the Sindh High Court who had lost their daughter at the hands of her murderous in-laws, and had made it their life’s mission to come for every court hearing, despite the passage of years and without respite. Court should not be pilgrimage and symbolic homage for the victims.
But there’s more.
Having a committed lawyer who gets you a hearing is simply a pre-requisite to court justice. What’s harder is accessing support that would prevent your entire world from collapsing. Adequate shelter is not readily available despite public or private efforts to improve this service. If the abuser is a bread winner, then the victim jeopardises her economic wellbeing.
The child beggar on Karachi’s street is even further removed from accessing justice and would perhaps depend on the benevolence of an individual or an NGO to manage and champion her case with all its social and economic outcomes. An NGO may only champion her cause if the media carried her story and humanised her. They would continue to champion her case if the media advocacy was fuelled up in parallel to keep the justice system in check, and maintain an interested audience.
But that still does not account for the numerous cases that go unchecked and unreported. A girl in a rural village would be even more removed from justice where jirgasand parallel justice systems may or may not function with police complicity. Justice should not depend on heroes. Without vibrant state mechanisms, these are the stolen lives, robbed by an ineffectual state. Society’s attitude towards women
But where does this entire concept come from?
Why is it so easy for a father to thrash 12-year-old Aniqa to death?
How is it that a father in Germany can murder his own daughter?
What is hidden within our psyche that allows us to tolerate such violence against women and girls?
Is it based in female’s lack of power in the society and the compulsory gender norms inflicted upon them of honour and service?
It’s easy to, with impunity, batter a person who does not wield social and economic power. When a few women do show social power as in the case of Malala Yousafzai, people gleefully dismiss her as an agent of the West. This is despite the fact that Malala has spoken up for Palestine and against drones, and continues to show agency and defiance in the face of cruel dismissals. Asma Jahangir’s name will elicit disapproving looks from elders, generals, and clerics. Mukhtaran Mai will get accused of procuring visas by talk show hosts. When rape is seen as a ploy for attention, rather than a crime; when strong women are scoffed at as too aggressive and given a condemning “F” on gender expectations; when women are dismissed for talking too much or nagging their husbands – we know misogyny is alive and well. As the Margaret Attwood quote goes,
“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.”
This violence is also rooted in customary practices of regarding women as commodities. Females are pawns in swara, vani, watta satta and used like chattel to settle criminal and civil disputes. That Parliament has legislated to end these traditional practices would have been solace, had it not been its own ambivalent attitudes to other legal policies that perpetuate women and girl’s unequal status. Marital rape is not an explicitly listed crime because of the notion (based in law) that a woman has a contractual obligation to service her husband, and lacks absolute autonomy to say no for good, bad, or no reason. When laws allow one to privately settle a murder case, it creates a hierarchy of victims, the least worthy of whom are the poor, the powerless, and women whose unjust death can be settled for cash – and the most powerful are eligible for formal justice.
This legal practice informally infiltrates other areas like rape cases (where it is illegal) is also undeniable. When caste and religion based discrimination finds legal sanction, it’s predictable that the police officers will refuse to file an FIR report from a poor, lower caste, minority victim, whose body is seen as designed for servitude.
Her body can be violated at will by the powerful. Demanding dignity is a sign of her audacity that upsets settled norms. Women are routinely denied even their legal inheritance, systematically erased from formal labour markets, when they do unpaid housework, or engage in agricultural, home-based or domestic work that is not covered by labour law protections. The solution
Lawyers will tell you that it is uncommon for women to prosecute their abusers or seek jail for their rapists; but women are active litigants in family court. Women do seek Khula (dissolution of marriage) and courts have adapted Khula laws liberally to provide reprieve to married women seeking an out from an abusive or otherwise unacceptable marriage.
This may not be ideal; this is certainly not an answer to all forms of violence against women, but it is the start of empowerment. And it comes through awareness and education about legal rights at an early age. Cynicism is not a choice. Active citizenship necessitates that people familiarise themselves with laws, support and provide constructive criticism to civil society’s engagement with the state on these issues, and push the state apparatus to deliver justice. Once justice is seen to be done for women victims of domestic, sexual, and other forms of violence, these underlying attitudes that uphold patriarchy, its ensuing misogyny, disempowerment, and commodification of women may just start to wither away.
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Abira Ashfaq
A law teacher in Karachi who works with human rights organisations. She tweets @oil_is_opium. Curtsey:The Expresss Tribue, Published: October 3, 2015
50 percent children out of school due to poverty
Myra Imran
Around 50% of children in Pakistan are out of school due to poverty, lack of infrastructure and social mindset.
The alarming statistics were shared by experts and media persons at a seminar on ‘Promotion and Protection of Child Rights’ organised by the Ministry of Human Rights in collaboration with Unicef. Participants of the seminar discussed the state of child rights in Pakistan and the role different stakeholders could play to improve the situation.
They were of the view that there are a number of laws in the country regarding protection of child rights, but there is little implementation due to which a huge population of children is suffering. The participants stressed that health, education, healthy nutrition and suitable living environment are the basic rights of children and the state is responsible for providing these rights to children.
They shared shocking statistics and expressed disappointment over the state structure that fails to identify and solve the issues that lead to the worsening situation of child rights. The speakers pointed out that there are some tribal areas where the percentage of out of school children is 97 to 98%.
Child rights activist Anis Jilani from Society for the Protection of the Rights of Child (Sparc) said that Pakistan is one of the few countries where child labour is increasing. He termed the big proportion of out of school children as one of the major reasons for this increase. “I think that such huge population of out of school children is the biggest problem of our country,” he said.
Anis discussed in detail the legislation done so far for children and said that slow process of the enactment of those laws and lack of implementation reflects how important children are for the policymakers. “Pakistan signed United Nations Convention on Child Rights in 1990, but the situation of children in Pakistan remained precarious and nothing significant has been done to implement the convention.” He said that 400,000 children under age five die every year in the country and only 34 per cent boys and 26 per cent girls manage to get secondary education. He mentioned that Pakistan has a comprehensive law on child trafficking, but it deal with only international human trafficking whereas most of the children are trafficked within the country.
Parliamentary Secretary Rubina Saadat Qaimkhani said that the present government is committed to take effective measures to end violence against children. She said the establishment of parliamentary forum for protecting child rights is a milestone in this regard.
Journalist and anchor Mohammad Malick said that child rights issues are at the low priority because children are not voters. He suggested vocational training for children at primary level and stressed on the need for organising, educating and motivating children about these issues so that they could contribute to improving the child rights situation in the country.
Director General Child Rights at the Ministry of Human Rights M H Mangi shared the details of the proposed National Commission on Child Rights with participants. He said that the Ministry of Human Rights is committed to establishing the commission which would be independent, representative of all provinces and have the power to identify and address child right violations in the country. He said that the commission will also have representation of children.
Mangi said that the ministry has submitted the first-ever law on child pornography to the Ministry of law and also suggested to increase the age of criminal responsibility.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) CEC Member Chaudhry Manzoor Hussain called for combining all laws which deal with child rights.
While addressing the seminar, chief guest Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira said that the media has an important and sensitive role in projecting awareness campaigns. He pointed out that the media should focus on highlighting the miseries of the neglected rural and poor population of society, especially children.
Curtsey:The News,
Poverty eradication:Race for Survival in Sanghar,Lahore,Islamabad
The race in Sanghar started at 10am with two teams: blue and green. Each team comprised 60 students. Out of the total 120 children, 50 were females. PHOTO: SAVE THE CHILDREN SANGHAR: The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty saw nearly 1,600 children participating in a marathon relay race across three cities – Sanghar, Lahore and Islamabad – organised by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Save the Children.
The day is celebrated across the world on October 17. The ‘Race for Survival’, as it was called, was organised to promote awareness about the Millennium Development Goal IV. The goal suggests that the ever-increasing infant mortality rate, which continues to grow because of preventable causes and poverty, and the inability to afford necessary vaccinations and healthcare facilities, can and should be reduced.
The race in Sanghar started at 10am with two teams: blue and green. Each team comprised 60 students. Out of the total 120 children, 50 were females. The participating children were given shoes, socks, T-shirts and caps free-of-charge while their families saw them sprint towards the finish line. The blue team crossed the line first to grab the winner’s trophy.
Save the Children provincial manager Iqbal Detho said that they had achieved their goal of enlightening people on the neglected issue of infant mortality through the event.“Nearly 18,000 children die every day,” he said. “Today’s race was for the children to show solidarity against infant mortality caused by malnutrition and unavailability of proper healthcare. Today, these children have sent a message to the world that they should not be forgotten.”
Detho added that they do not lack funding or monetary power. “What we do lack, however, is the intention to do something for these little angels,” he said. “It is the responsibility of the government to complete the mission that we, as NGOs, have started.”On this occasion, Sanghar additional deputy commissioner Salik Mirza commended the efforts of Save the Children. “Save the Children has done what all of us should be doing, that is, fighting for the rights of children. Their education, health and other needs are a responsibility of the parents but the government needs to strengthen the system so that parents can survive in it.”
During their speeches, the children demanded an equal distribution of wealth and recreational parks and playgrounds to help improve their physical education. They also demanded health facilities from the government for all children of their age so that they live longer and help the country prosper.
Parents also welcomed the approach of the organisation. They appreciated their ‘inspirational’ efforts ‘which made them realise the gravity of this issue.”
Shahdadpur College physical education director Muhammad Shahbaz Bajwa said that they trained the children for the race by teaching them how to warm up and acquainting them with the rules and regulations of the race.
Curtsey: The Express Tribune, October 18th,2014.
World Day Against Child Labour: Pakistan to lose
millions if it doesn’t abide by laws
By Farhan Zaheer
A child labourer operates a drill machine at a workshop in Lahore. PHOTO: APP KARACHI: Child labour, for its strong opponents, may be a social issue, but failing to eliminate child labour also has an impact on Pakistan’s economy – and a severe one.
A country like Pakistan, which continuously struggles to increase its exports, should now review its commitment to the elimination of child labour as it is now more directly linked with its exports.
“There is a growing realisation in Pakistan that the elimination of child labour and implementation of labour laws are now directly related to exports of the country,” said Punjab Labour Welfare Department Director General Syed Hasnat Javed.
Pakistan, like most other countries of the world, will be organising programmes on World Day Against Child Labour today. But on purely economic terms, this annual day should be different for Pakistan.
On January 1, 2014, Pakistan qualified for the Generalised System of Preference (GSP) Plus scheme in one of the biggest trading blocs of the world – the European Union (EU). Under this scheme, Pakistan can export most of its textile products to 28 EU nations at concessionary duty rates or duty free, making Pakistani products cheaper for European importers. The duty concessions under GSP Plus are for four years, that is, until the end of 2017.
After that, the EU will review the implementation of 27 international conventions relating to human rights, labour rights, environment and good governance in Pakistan to grant this trading facility for another seven years. If Pakistan fails to implement these conventions, it will lose these billions of dollars in trade concessions (Pakistan expects additional annual exports of around $1 billion after getting the GSP-plus status). Out of these 27 conventions, eight are related to labour laws with one specially related to the elimination of the worst form of child labour in the country.
The importance of implementing ILO conventions can easily be understood from one recent example. Walt Disney, the US entertainment giant, has recently stopped placing orders to Pakistan’s leading textile firms on the labour issues.
What is more embarrassing for the government is that the company was warning Pakistan for over eight months, but the relevant ministries did not take timely action. According to estimates, the US company’s decision will cause an annual loss of about $150-$200 million.
Leading textile industry officials believe that such cases may hurt Pakistan’s interest if other countries, or especially the EU, takes up such issues.
“Child labour and the implementation of labour laws according to ILO conventions are very important for Pakistan. We cannot overlook any of these interrelated issues,” said Javed when asked how child labour and other labour laws are linked with the country’s exports.
Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & Research (PILER) Senior Research Associate Zeenat Hisam told The Express Tribune that the situation of child labour has not improved over the years.
“However, one change has been that now parents and community members realise the importance of education, considering it essential for children’s better future,” she wrote in her study on District Tando Allahyar, Sindh, in late 2013.
According to Hisam, the rise in awareness about education is the single biggest change she noticed in her different studies in recent years, but because there are no schools, the children are allowed and made to work.
Concluding her study, she said, “Our assessment indicates that unless a two-pronged strategy — overhauling educational infrastructure and creating decent employment opportunities – is adopted for short and long term interventions, the malaise of child labour will persist,”
Meanwhile, Sagheer Bukhari, who looks after child labour issues at ILO’s Country Office for Pakistan in Islamabad, said the country had progressed remarkably in the last two decades. “But we also realise that this is a big issue and it will take a long time to resolve.” Curtsey: The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2014
Plight of Children in Pakistan, a grim Scenario!
A child working in a Brick Kiln in Pakistan.
Abuse and violence against children are the most agonizing and insidious type of crimes that have profoundly been entrenched in our awfully violent society due to the absence of an effective child protection mechanism. Besides continual maltreatment of children in our daily lives and violation of child rights, the recent frightening media reports – of heinous and heart-wrenching incidents of abuse and violence against children from all over the country – such as the Kasurincident,are virtually enough to paralyze one’s senses about the severity and magnitude of the calamity. The precarious and depressing state of children in our dear land calls upon an urgent attention and effort of the authorities and society to rectify.
‘World’s Development Indicators WDI 2015’ by World Bank reports that over 50 percent of Pakistan’s 200 million population lives below the poverty line i.e. two dollars a day internationally, with 5.01/10 RCRI (Realization of Children’s Rights Index), by Humanium.
The literacy rate, unlike the United Nation’s Millinium Development Goals target of 88% by 2015, stands at 58% which is 74.04% in India. Also, Pakistan has the highest rate of school exclusion rate of 51% for pre-school age children, 34.4% for primary school-age children, while 42% of its population (age 10+) remains illiterate, that also reveals huge gender and rural/urban disparities; says UNICEF.
Alif Ailaan’s new study “25 Million Broken Promises” states that “currently 25.02 million boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 16 are not in school”.
Moreover, UNICEF’s “State of World’s Children Report 2014” claims that around 35% children in Pakistan under the age five are underweight; over 50% suffer from stunted growth and around 9% from emaciation indicating very poor nutrition status. As per UNDP’s Millennium Development Goals, Pakistan stands among the worst performers in child and infant mortality – as the number of deaths of children per 1000 live births is 69 against the target of 40.
As of 2015, under-five mortality rate (per 1000 live births) is 81%. About 1100 under-five-year-old children die daily from diarrhea, illnesses related to water sanitation and hygiene.
Around 70% births are not officially reported (owing to) in the absenceof regulations on birth resulting in failure to receive official identity and respect of rights. It is fairly said by SPARC (Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child), ‘the country (Pakistan) has no justice system that is just and fair to children’.
According to ILO, around 12 million children in Pakistan are in child labour and are made to work in areas such as agriculture, textile, carpeting, construction, automotive industry and as domestic servants in serious hazardous and detrimental health conditions.
Also, due to family problems or maltreatment and torture by teachers, parents, and other family members, nearly 1.5 million children are forced to take refuge in streets where they are exposed to serious health issues and become easy target to get physically and sexually abused.
Child Abuse – the harm (physical, emotional, or sexual), ill-treatment, neglect or deprivation of any child or imminent risk of it by a parent or caretaker – includes:
Emotional abuse, the most common form – to criticize, reject, degrade, ignore, isolate, exploit and terrorize, causing long-lasting behavior and character damage.
Neglect, failure to provide food, clothing, and shelter, medical care, inadequate supervision, a consistent failure to protect from hazards or dangers resulting in impaired functioning or development of a child.
Physical abuse – battering, beating, kicking, biting, burning, throwing etc. – Pakistan is among 50 states where a ‘reasonable’ degree of violence is overlooked in “better interest” of the child. Hence, infliction of physical punishment is frequent in homes, schools, and work places even though modern research points to its deleterious physical and psychological effects on children. Cultural acceptance, under-reporting and current administrative system impedes effective implementation of various Child Protection laws and policies. In March, 2014, Government officially launched a national campaign to ban corporal punishment in schools, in collaboration with the SAIVAC and the South Asia Coordinating Group on Action (SACGA) but the deeply rooted saga of corporal punishment in Pakistani society has shown little change and needs more strict implementation.
Sexual abuse – use of a child for sexual purpose by an adult, acquaintance or stranger – conceivably the nastiest form of child abuse, trailing stern sexual and personality disorders, suicidal behavior, depression, low self-esteem, and family functioning harms. The 300 children being forced to have sex and videotaped, mostly under 14, in Kasur by a black mailing gang and in 1990s the rape and murder of 100 children in Lahore by serial killer Javed Iqbal Mughal, are only tip of the ice berg of horrific account of child abuse in Pakistan.
Sahil reports that sexual abuse has increased in Pakistan by 17% from the previous year. A total of 3508 cases of child sexual abuse were registered in 2014 of which 67% were from rural and 33% from urban areas. Bearing the lion’s share of the total, 66% of the victims were girls and 34% of the total were boys.
Provincially disaggregated data shows the highest number of child sexual abuse in Punjab with 2,054 followed by 875 in Sindh, 297 from Balochistan, 152 from KPK, 90 from Federal Capital and 38 from Azad Kashmir. The data reports rape/sodomy as major crime category and the most vulnerable age group is 11 to 15 years.
Huge cultural, social, and religious barriers and stigmas prevent victims from reporting of the sexual offense to police hence the precise enormity of this crime is hard to fathom.
Furthermore, violence against children in Pakistan is multifaceted and stratified with the capacity to affect several aspects of a child’s life. Only 20% of the violence and abuse cases are reported, however – studies estimate.
SPARC, a leading NGO working for child rights, puts child marriages, son preference, female infanticide, honor crime, forced feeding, and accusation of witchcraft as a few commonly prevalent criminal/harmful traditional practices — mostly in remote rural areas, owing to ingrained cultural approval and religious misconceived understanding — that leave lethal impact on child’s physical, intellectual, emotional development.
Despite Child Marriage Restraint Act, 7% of Pakistani girls were married before the age of 15 while 24% before they were 18, reports UNICEF whereas a huge number of underage marriages that go unreported — emanating serious emotional, psychological and reproductive health issues – risk them being exposed to physical violence, servitude, and rapes.
Minor girls given off in marriage to settle a dispute as quick solution by the aggressor in compensation for the dead, called Vani/SWARA, is also a gross violation of human (child) rights.
Recurring natural disasters, armed conflicts also push families to flee places, making children the first victims as they are most vulnerable both physically and mentally. Also, terrorist activities such as the incident where a group of terrorists attacked a children school killing 148 including 133 children can create various psychological problems in children.
Pakistan being the sixth in ratifying and signing UNCRC had little reason to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the passing of UNCRC on November 20th, 2014, the Universal Children’s Day. Having signed and ratified the Optional Protocol to the UNCRC dealing with the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography, the Federal Government failed to take any concrete measures regarding its adoption and enforcement in Pakistan till date. Several other Bills on Child Rights and protection await approval and execution.
Children are the symbol of divine beauty, purity and jollity on earth and the condition of children in any society portrays the precise picture of its societal, ethical or civic evolution and standing. It is imperative for the State and Community to recognize the existing forms of violence and abuse; and to counter it through community mobilization and awareness campaigns through print, and electronic media, to revamp the current legislative framework and bring it in line with international standards.
In addition, there is a dire need of launching parenting skills courses, child’s personal safety programs, non-violent conflict resolution courses (in schools), and linking of expert NGOs, volunteers and individuals of society, to remodel Pakistan as a civilized nation. Correction: This story has been updated to correctly show Pakistan’s population as 200 million which was mistakenly typed as 20 million. Curtsey:www.voiceofjournalists.com , November 10, 2015 Read at source: http://www.voiceofjournalists.com/plight-of-children-in-pakistan-a-grim-scenario/
Lahore police book nine-month-old boy
LAHORE: Police authorities suspended an officer for lodging an FIR against a small child but only after the nine-month old 'criminal' got bail from a local judge on Thursday.
The 'accused' appeared in the local court with his grandfather where Judge Rafaqat Ali granted him an interim bail.
The nine-month-old Moosa Khan was booked for his 'involvement' in an alleged assassination attempt on police.
Muslim Town police accused the child of stoning their colleagues somewhere in the city.
Taking notice of the media reports DIG Operations has suspended the ASI for registering a case against the nine-month old boy.
Police were quick enough to shift the blame on the plaintiff of the FIR, saying they didn’t know whether the accused was a child.
Minister for Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Khalil Tahir Sindhu has also taken notice of the human right violation by the police. Curtsey:The News,April 03, 2014
Video: Lab Pe Aati Hay Dua Ban Kay Tamanna Meri.... Zindagi Shama Ki Sorat Ho Khudaya Meri...
