Child sex abuse

The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights last week introduced an important amendment to the Zainab Alert Bill that was passed by the National Assembly last month to counter the scourge of sexual violence against children. The amendment calls for expanding the jurisdiction of the proposed law to the entire country as the bill only applies to Islamabad. The bill proposes the establishment of the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Agency (ZARRA) to be tasked with maintaining a database of missing and abducted children. Under the bill, named after seven-year-old Zainab Ansari who was murdered after being raped in Kasur in 2018, citizens will also be provided a helpline to report such cases and the information will also be sent to electronic and print media.

However, the scope of the proposed law, restricted to the capital territory only, remains a major drawback. An alert system can only be truly effective if it offers a countrywide helpline and database to ensure a swift law-enforcement response when a child goes missing. It was imperative, therefore, that the jurisdiction of the bill was extended to cover the entire country that has seen an alarming number of sexual crimes against children in the past decade, with more than 3,800 such crimes being committed in 2018 alone. A senator has, however, objected to the amendment, saying an extension in the jurisdiction amounts to a violation of the 18th Amendment. If it is so, it must be taken care of some way.

We must also remember that, whatever else we may do for child protection, it is ultimately the performance of the police which will determine whether a missing child is recovered. Sadly, however, our country’s child protection experts have consistently blamed the rise in child abuse incidents on a wider culture of apathy among law enforcers.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2020.

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