Civil society discusses child protection with senators

Islamabad : To share their recommendations to address the issue of child abuse in the country, a delegation of civil society’s representative met the members of Senate’s “Special Committee on Issue of Increasing Incidents of Child Abuse” on Thursday.

In their meeting with Convenor of the Committee Senator Nuzhat Sadiq and committee members Senator Sitara Ayaz and Senator Muhammad Ali Khan Saif, activists offer their technical assistance in the development of a national structural system for countering child abuse with complete action plan as they work at the grassroots level and have in-depth knowledge of the actual situation which can help in making the Senate’s groundbreaking upcoming initiative more effective. The delegation was led by activist and documentary filmmaker Haseeb Khawaja.

Senators have welcomed activists’ concerns and recommendations and invited them in the consultative process of upcoming committee meetings in the Senate of Pakistan.

Senator Nuzhat Sadiq said they will surely work together with the civil society to ensure safety and well-being of all Pakistani children.

Haseeb Khawaja suggested the Senates special committee members to have more focus on strengthening of child protection system besides proposing new laws, data management, capacity building law enforcement agencies, coordination among concerned stakeholders, elimination of mafias who are operating dark-web, post recovery from trauma and stigmatization of kids with the help of professional psychologists, child friendly budgetary allocation, educational reforms, aware-and-responsive mechanism for communities and effective advocacy campaigns.

Other civil society members present on occasion included Valerie Khan (GD Pakistan), Dr. Bashir H Shah (activist and psychologist), Naima Saqib (ITA), Umer Bin Tahir (PCE) Dr. Shagufta Naseer Abbasi (psychologist and activist), Aimen Saba (activist and psychologist), Iqra (activist) also expressed their recommendations regarding protection of children from abuse and exploitation.

Valerie Khan highlighted the importance of interagency protocols to end child abuse and she also pointed out lacunas in the provincial laws of all provinces regarding child protection.