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CD to help kids defend themselves in challenging situations launched

By Our Correspondent
February 21, 2018

An informative compact disc to spread awareness among children in order to guide them to defend themselves physically and mentally in different challenging situations was launched on Tuesday by the Sindh Women’s Parliamentary Caucus.

The ceremony was held at the Sindh Assembly’s auditorium. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and MNA Faryal Talpur was the chief guest of the event. Faryal directed the provincial culture department to get the content of the CD translated into different languages and its copies distributed at the grassroots level of the local government system of the province.

She also appreciated the performance of the provincial legislature for adopting laws for the protection of the rights and privileges of women and children. She said the Sindh Assembly’s performance had surpassed the output of all the legislatures of the country in enacting laws for the good of society.

The lawmaker said women had been performing an important role in society as well as in the arena of politics the world over. She said Pakistan had been blessed with multi-talented women belonging to different walks of life, adding that mothers should accord special attention to the upbringing and protection of their children.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister and PPP Sindh President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro appreciated the performance of the women’s parliamentary caucus, saying that the group had taken a praiseworthy step for the protection of children.

He said the mass media should carry forward the message contained in the CD, adding that the disc produced by the caucus should also be sent to all the schools. He congratulated all the people, including the actors, who worked to produce the CD.

The University of Karachi’s current and former vice-chancellors, Prof Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan and Prof Dr Pirzada Qasim, the Iranian consul general in Karachi and others also spoke on the occasion and appreciated the performance of the caucus in producing the disc.  

Budget approved

A budget of Rs200 million for the year 2017-18 was approved for the Sindh Child Protection Authority (SCPA) during its seventh meeting on Tuesday. Convened at the committee room of the Sindh Assembly building, the meeting was chaired by SCPA chairperson Shamim Mumtaz, who is also the adviser to the chief minister on social welfare.

A three-point agenda was placed before the meeting: confirmation of the minutes of the sixth meeting of the SCPA, the budget for the year 2017-18 and the structure of the authority.

Besides the budget, the SCPA’s structure was also approved. The directors for operations, finance & audit, legal and IT would assist the director general of the SCPA at the provincial level, while an assistant director would be posted at the divisional level and 29 child protection officers in all districts throughout the province.

The meeting also decided appointing officers and officials initially for six months from the existing resources of the Sindh government and its Social Welfare Department, which would be replaced by fresh recruits on a permanent basis.

A four-member SCPA executive committee was also approved, with Social Welfare Secretary Alia Shahid as its chairperson and Madadgar Helpline CEO Zia Awan, Coordination DS at the CM Secretariat Farah Yameen and Plan Pakistan’s Sohail Ahmed as its members.

They would meet once a week. The meeting decided to organise national-level conferences of stakeholders on children’s issues to strengthen coordination for the protection of children. The meeting also decided to regulate NGO-run shelter homes for children and certify them after following the standard operating procedures.

It was also decided that specialised organisations or NGOs working on child issues would be invited so that coordinated efforts could be initiated for the protection of children, and that Unicef would give a presentation on the survey jointly conducted with the Bureau of Statistics on child labour during the SCPA’s next meeting.

The meeting also approved the induction of SPARC regional head Kashif Bajeer as a co-opted member of the authority. Social Welfare Secretary Alia Shahid, SCPA DG Hafeezullah Abbasi, Madadgar Helpline CEO Zia Awan, Plan Pakistan’s Sohail Ahmed, Unicef’s Dr Asif, DevCon CEO Nisar Nizamani, Aahung Manager Aisha Aijaz, Coordination DS at the CM Secretariat Farah Yameen and representatives of the home, law and labour departments also attended the meeting.