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Senate passes ‘Zainab Alert Bill’ two years after minor’s murder

By News Desk
March 05, 2020

Ag Agencies

ISLAMABAD: The Senate has passed the landmark “Zainab Alert Bill 2020” which defines the law for the response and recovery of missing children two years after the murder of six-year-old Zainab Ansari in Kasur shocked the country.

According to Radio Pakistan, the “Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Bill, 2020” and “The University of Islamabad Bill, 2020” were passed on Wednesday.

According to the recent amendments passed by the Senate Standing Committee for Human Rights, the police would be bound to register cases of missing children and action would be taken against those officers who refuse to lodge reports. The cases related to child rape will be heard by special judges.

A helpline will be established under the law, in addition to the constitution of an agency to take immediate action after responding to complaints about the abduction, murder and rape of minor children, the bill states.

The bill was presented by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Khan Swati. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) opposed the bill. During the debate, PML-N Lawmaker Javed Abbasi argued the bill was being presented for the approval “in haste”, citing the tenure of proposed punishment for the accused was short in the bill.

According to Geo News, JI’s Siraj-ul-Haq and Mushtaq Ahmed voted against the bill, saying they had reservations over it. “The bill does not contain a provision for a death sentence,” Ahmed said, adding that: “A section on Qisas [an eye for an eye] should be added.” “Adding Sections 201 and 302 will make the bill more effective,” the JI lawmaker said.

On the other hand, Haq said that in the past few months, over three thousand children have been raped. “The bill needs Sections 201 and 302.” He added: “Without Qisas, we will not vote in favour of the bill and will stage a walkout.”

Senate Chairperson Sadiq Sanjrani, replying to the JI senators’ statement, said: “If you wanted changes to be made in the bill, you should have submitted them in the Senate Secretariat.” Sanjrani then asked the senators to pass the bill now and make amendments to it afterwards.

Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood and PTI Senator Faisal Javed requested the House to pass the bill “as the nation is waiting for its passage”. Swati said that he would introduce amendments to the bill in the future, but requested the House to pass it for now. The bill was subsequently passed.

The bill is named after Zainab Ansari, a minor girl who had been kidnapped on January 4, 2018 and whose corpse found on a garbage heap several days later. Her autopsy confirmed sexual assault and strangulation.

The murderer, Imran Ali, was arrested several weeks later after DNA evidence linked him to the crime, and the rape and murder of several other children from Kasur. He was convicted in February 2018, and later hanged in October that year at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail.