While we have become a nuclear state, we still have not been able to place pens and books in the hands of our children
LAHORE: Recently, I went to a shop where I saw a child of about five years working like a slave. He was trying to perform difficult tasks but the shopkeeper was not at all pleased with him. I felt sorry for the poor soul and thought to myself, have we failed as a society and gone down to the lowest level of morality? Has our state failed in protecting the basic rights of its citizens? Is this the Pakistan which Jinnah — whose utmost desire was that none of the children would sleep hungry in his Pakistan — wanted?
While we have become a nuclear state, we still have not been able to place pens and books in the hands of our children. It is a shameful situation for our government, too, which is more interested in building overhead bridges and metro bus routes. As a society we should raise our voice to fight the menace of child labour and for Pakistan to become a welfare republic.
Ahmad Humayun Asghar
Published in The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2015.
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