Zainab Alert Bill’s ambit being expanded all over country

Senate functional committee unanimously approves amendment to the bill

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights on Monday unanimously approved an amendment in the Zainab Alert Bill, expanding the jurisdiction of the proposed legislation from the federal capital to the entire country.

However, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Quratul Ain Marri opposed the bill, stressing that it violated the 18th Amendment that empowered provinces to legislate on the matter.

The meeting of the Senate functional committee was held under the chairmanship of Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokar.

Senator Khokar said the Zainab Alert Bill would be made more effective in order to control the increasing incidents of rape and kidnapping of children in the country.

“During the previous two meetings, the functional committee along with the ministry and concerned authorities conducted a detailed review and compiled various suggestions. The government and the law ministry have approved those suggestions. The existing errors in the bill would be removed to make it more effective.”

The functional committee held discussions with the law ministry, human rights ministry and a Supreme Court lawyer on the first eight clauses of the bill and approved several amendments.

The committee decided to give an advertisement for the appointment of director general of Zainab, Alert, Response and Recovery Agency (ZARRA) and place the name before the prime minister for approval.

Khokar said, “After a child goes missing, it takes a lot of time to lodge an FIR and the policemen don’t even know under which section to file it. The first few hours after the child is kidnapped are very important. Delay in the FIR proves beneficial for the culprits and detrimental for the family members.”

He said it is unfortunate an innocent child in Islamabad was kidnapped and an FIR was not lodged for two days while the behaviour of the policemen with the missing girl’s family was inappropriate.

Senator Dr Meher Taj Roghani suggested adding punishments and fines to the bill for “improving the policemen’s behaviour”.

The participants agreed that police should be bound to file an FIR as soon as they receive a report of a missing child and present a challan within 14 days. The police will also be bound to keep the missing child's parents informed of the developments in the case.

The Senate panel further said that any police officer who fails to file an FIR immediately after receiving a complaint would be sentenced to prison for up to two years, in addition to a fine of Rs50,000 to Rs100,000. The concerned police officer can also be fired, the panel declared.

The Senate panel also approved the establishment of special courts for child abuse cases, which will decide the cases within three months.

It decided that the role of ZARRA, apart from issuing alerts, would also include cooperating with the institutions.

The functional committee took back the power of recovering the missing child and conducting investigation from the Zainab Alert Bill, saying it is not its job to do so. “The bill calls for providing information, coordination and facilitation,” they added. “Conducting an investigation and recovering missing children is the police’s work.”

The bill also proposes a Child Protection Advisory Board to ensure ZARRA performs its functions. The senators decided to further review the sections of the bill in the next meeting.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights added death penalty as the maximum sentence while 10 years imprisonment was the minimum.

Read The Express Tribune's extensive report on the ZARRA Act 2010 here.