Proper enforcement

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior’s approval of the bill to increase the prison term for criminals who violate child pornography and child molestation laws is understandable. Regardless of the country’s status as an Islamic republic, the ground realities are that we have a high number of sexually repressed men who sometimes seek out children to allay their carnal desires. The greater emphasis by the National Assembly on laws to prevent this occurrence is appreciated. Nonetheless, a lack of implementation is expected and for this reason lawmakers need to perhaps first revisit punishment for law-enforcement officers who willingly choose to ignore those who transgress laws, large or minute.

Kasur’s child sex ring diverted significant attention to the child sex abuse problem. However, instead of first redesigning the laws, law enforcement needed to be mobilised towards effectively working to apply existing laws against child sex abuse. In the recent “Me, too” campaign on social media highlighting incidents of sexual harassment and abuse faced by women, many confirmed they had experienced abuse as children. Taking this into consideration, officials under oath must work on implementation of existing child sex abuse laws and be reminded that their purpose is to protect the defenceless.

Furthermore, rather than for the Law Division and the government to become divided against each other, all quarters need to work in unison to improve the circumstances. Too often, disagreements turn into ego battles and a crucial problem is left in the dust. Implementation is a complaint when it comes to most rules in this country so it is imperative that the law-enforcement department expand its force and train officers to make them more informed, whether the prison term is amended to 14-20 years or remains between two and seven years here. They must also be educated in what consequences stand for them should they willingly decide to allow civilians to violate laws.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2017.

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