Madadgar Helpline moves SC to end violence against children

Two weeks ago, a man accused of raping a minor girl, murdering her and then dumping her body in a garbage heap in Gizri in 2010 was acquitted of all charges and set free, proving that Pakistan has a long way to go before such offences against children are taken seriously.

This was stated by Zia Ahmed Awan, National Commissioner for Children and founder of the Madadgar National Helpline 1098, on Thursday at a press conference held to announce that the Madadgar Helpline has filed a petition in the Supreme Court to hold all government departments accountable for failing to stop violence against children.

The petition filed under Article 184, Section 3 of the Constitution on Thursday at the Karachi registry of the apex court defends the right to protection of all minors, including those who are homeless, have been sexually abused, trafficked or kidnapped.

The Supreme Court is yet to hear the petition but a reminder has been sent to the Chief Justice via a letter to the registrar to stress in the gravity of the issue, he said. According to Awan, his organisation (Madadgar National Helpline 1098) received a total of 71 cases of rape and murder from all provinces during 2016-2017, while as per overall statistics gathered by them, there were 900 cases of rape or sodomy, followed by 400 cases of gang-rape of children and 110 cases of rape and murder.

Referring to the 2010 Gizri case, he said that accused Sher Khan, who was the deceased minor’s cousin, was convicted within three months following a speedy trial. “However a full bench of the court acquitted him after giving reasons that there was lack of forensic evidence and that Khan had retracted from his original confessional statement,” he said.

Awan also expressed concern regarding the lack of interest shown by inter-provincial bodies in child trafficking cases because children who run away from their homes usually use trains, crossing provincial borders to reach other cities, from where they are often kidnapped and trafficked.

Speaking about the evidence needed in sexual assault cases, Awan pointed out that to get DNA test results, the samples are sent to Islamabad which only leads to further delays in cases.

“Punjab is the only province which has its forensic system in place, and with the rising number of cases, it’s absolutely necessary to develop a system which may help us preserve evidence instead of losing it,” he said.

“We would like the Chief Justice to order a thorough investigation into the cases of violence against children in the last five years in order to gauge the efficacy of the provincial bodies and identify all those who are complicit in the acts,” he added.

Stressing on the need to provide a safe space to children, Awan said that the state needs to take measures to ensure that all schools and seminaries must have a psychotherapist who can deal with the cases of any kind of abuse. He also said that the media must maintain confidentiality of such cases so the victims or the guardians of the victims may not hesitate to come forward with a complaint.