K-P body okays death sentence for child abusers

Approves amendments on child protection law, to be tabled in K-P Assembly

PESHAWAR: A special parliamentary committee, formed by the provincial government to offer recommendations on curtailing child abuse in the province, on Wednesday approved the ‘The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare (Amendment) Act 2020.

The amendments were approved in a meeting of the 13-member special parliamentary committee against child abuse which was held on Wednesday. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ghani chaired the meeting while members of the opposition and treasury benches from the provincial assembly, along with the K-P Law Department officials, Social Welfare Department and police officials attended the meeting.

The parliamentary committee proposed amendments in the Child Protection and Welfare Act 2010, to include capital punishment. The bill will soon be tabled before the provincial cabinet, after which its law will be tabled in the provincial assembly for debate and voting.

Apart from including the death penalty for child abuse convicts, the proposed amendment suggests enhancing the punishment for sexual harassment from seven to 14 years in jail along with a fine of Rs5 million.

Participants of the meeting further proposed that recordings of child abuse convicts being hanged should be shared on the media so that no one can dare commit such dreadful crimes.

Under the proposed amendment act, a convict can also be sent to prison for life.

The parliamentary committee has further proposed that anyone found guilty of pedophilic acts should be barred from travelling in public transport and should also be permanently banned from getting government jobs while their names should be included in a specific list.

It was further suggested that all teachers at the primary level should be women. Model police stations and courts will also be set up where child abuse cases can be reported and heard respectively.

The committee will also decide to file a review petition against the ban on public hanging and that public hangings will be requested as part of the sentence for the rape and murder of minors.

Ghani said that the government, through the Social Welfare Department, will advertise awareness messages apart from arranging training programmes for teachers and students on the subject.

Moreover, the assembly speaker said that Pakistan Television’s (PTV) managing director will be requested to broadcast awareness programmes on the subject.

Ghani added topics on child abuse and sexual harassment will be made a part of the curriculum. He added that daycare centres at the offices for working women will also be established so that they can bring their children with them.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2020.