NA passes Zainab Alert Bill after amendments by Senate

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Wednesday passed the Zainab Alert, Recovery, and Response Bill, 2020, which aims to take timely action for the recovery of missing and abducted children.

Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari moved a motion for the bill to be considered as passed by the Senate with amendments. The bill will be considered law when President Arif Alvi ratifies it with his signature.

According to the bill, the maximum sentence handed down to child sexual abusers would be life imprisonment, with a Rs1-million fine while the minimum sentence would be 10 years.

Under the bill, investigations pertaining to cases of kidnapping, rape, and murder of minor children would be need to be completed within three months.

It is set to ensure harmonisation and cohesion in the workings of the new agencies and institutions established for the protection of children and already existing mechanisms within the field.

It has also suggested that a Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Agency (ZARRA)  be established, headed by a director-general appointed by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

ZARRA will work closely with the 1099 helpline or such other helplines operating under the mandate of the Division concerned.

In this regard, the helpline shall forward complaints relevant to the mandate of ZARRA, which shall be acted upon in partnership between ZARAA and the National Commission on the Rights of the Child (NCRC) established under the National Commission on the Rights of Child Act, 2017.

The bill has also proposed taking action against police officials who cause unnecessary delay in investigating such cases, along with the proposal that those who fail to respond to the alert within two hours may also face action.

The local police and concerned law enforcement agencies shall, therefore, launch an immediate probe into any incident reported.

ZARRA shall, wherever required, coordinate the efforts of the concerned police stations and other federal and provincial agencies, authorities or departments.

Upon receiving information that a child is missing, the officer in charge of a police station shall  put the same into writing in the same book and in the same manner as prescribed for a cognisable offense under section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and shall be under a duty to cause investigation of the same and recover the missing child and also ensure that the required information in Schedule A to this AC, is made part of the complaint.

After the passage of the bill, Mazari thanked all the political parties for supporting it.

"I am also thankful to the Human Rights Committees of Senate and National Assembly for their support," she added.