Homecoming: Seven missing children recovered

They were found to be living with Child Protection Bureau, Lahore

KARACHI: Around seven children, who went missing from the province, were rescued by the Sindh government.

About five children were from Karachi and one each from Hyderabad and Dhabeji, Thatta. The children were found in Punjab.

Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club, social welfare minister Shamim Mumtaz said that these children had left their homes due to different reasons. They were found with Child Protection Bureau, Lahore.

"During an event in Lahore, I visited the child protection bureau where they informed me about the children from Sindh," said the minister, adding that with the help of the non-governmental organisation she was able to bring the children back.

One of the children, identified as 11-year-old Salman, had left his house in Hyderabad in 2014 after his relatives beat him up. "He was living at Data Darbar in Lahore from where the Child Protection Bureau Lahore took him to a shelter," said Shamim, adding that her department will hand over the child to his uncle in Hyderabad. "We can keep the child in Darul Atfal, if his uncle is unwilling to accept him," she added.

Another child, Aamir, 9, resident of Machhar Colony, had left the house after his father beat him up. He was found in Jauhar Town in Lahore from where the local police shifted him to the shelter of child protection service.

Similarly, Habibullah, 9, was missing since April last year. Despite many attempts by his parents who live in Pathan Colony, Karachi, he remained untraceable.  "For a few months, he lived at Lahore Railway Station from where he was shifted to Lahore bureau," she said. The other children were identified as Zeeshan, Ibrahim and Hizbullah.

Mumtaz was also accompanied by parliamentary affairs minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2017.