CM Murad forms 18-member committee to enforce child protection rights

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Monday constituted an 18-member committee under his chairmanship for effective implementation and enforcement of child protection rights.

The committee has been formed after Chairman Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has stressed on creating awareness about preventive measures to combat child abuse.

“Punishment to culprits is imperative but it could not ensure protection to the minors,” he said while comparing the higher number of child abuse cases in far developed countries with specific laws and punishment pertaining to the crime.

The decision of amendment in school curriculum through enforcement of child protection rights has been taken after grisly rape and murder incident of Zainab Ansari in Kasur, following which several other similar cases have surfaced, mostly in Kasur.

Read More: Bilawal stresses awareness to combat child abuse

In this connection, Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon with approval of the chief minister has issued a notification.

According to the notification, the Murad Shah would be chairman of the committee while the secretary school education and literacy department will be secretary of the committee.

The other members of the committee include the chief secretary, provincial ministers for education and law, Justice (rtd) Nasir Aslam Zahid, advisor to CM for social welfare, special assistant to CM on human rights, provincial secretaries of home, social welfare, human rights, inpector general Sindh Police, advocate Zia Awan, Sidqa Bari of Indus Resource Center, Abdul Bari Khan of Indus Hospital, Aisha Aijaz Manager Aahung and Khalid Mahmood Chairman PeaceNiche.

The Terms of Reference (ToR) of the committee are as follows:

1- To monitor the implementation of the decisions taken regarding introduction of changes in the curriculum/syllabi for imparting Life Skill Based Education to Children in schools of the province.

2- To monitor the progress on teachers’ training on the modules of Life Skill Based Education.

3- To monitor the implementation of actions required to be taken under Child Protection Authority, 2011 and other relevant laws with regard to protection of the rights of the children.

4- To monitor the performance of the Child Protection Authority, Child Protection Unit and Child Protection Officers on the indicators and benchmarks to be decided by the committee.

Read More: New CCTV footage shows Zainab being led away by ‘suspect’

The committee will hold meeting once a month wherein, secretary school education & literacy department and secretary social welfare department will give presentation on the progress.