After Senate, National Assembly passes Zainab Alert Bill

The amended bill now awaits president’s assent before its implementation as legislation

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Wednesday passed Zainab Alert Recovery and Response Bill (ZARR), 2020 – that sentences life imprisonment with a penalty of Rs1 million as maximum and a sentence of 10 years as the minimum punishment to child perpetrators.

After approval from the upper house of parliament last week, the amended bill, which was tabled by Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari in the lower house on Wednesday, now awaits the president’s assent before its implementation as legislation.

In January 2018, eight-year-old Zainab was raped and murder in Punjab’s Kasur city which sparked outrage in the country and raised questions over the security of children.

ZARRA will be headed by prime minister’s appointed Director General who will practice his duties according to the prescribed rules and regulations.

Under the passed bill, all cases involving the kidnapping, rape and murder of minor children will be required to complete investigations within three months.

The bill will raise required alerts and will initiate the responses required for recovery of missing, abducted, abused or kidnapped children in entire country.

It will also help to provide speedy system for alerts, responses, recoveries, investigations, trails and rehabilitation to prevent and curb criminal activities against children.

Demanding management staff of ZARRA to be suitably equipped with skills of managing databases, conducting planning and monitoring of programs, analysing data, preparing reports and coordinating with all other officers, the bill also suggests that the team  should closely work with the helpline 1099 or such other helpline operating under the mandate of the Division concerned.

Senate passes Zainab Alert Bill 2020

In this regard, the helpline shall forward complaints relevant to the mandate of ZARRA, which shall be acted upon in partnership between ZARAA and the National Commission on the Rights of the Child (NCRC) – established under the National Commission on the Rights of Child Act, 2017.

The bill also proposed an immediate action against police officials who cause unnecessary delay in investigation of such cases.

According to the bill, upon receiving information that a child is missing, the officer in charge shall reduce the same into writing in the same book and in the same manner as prescribed for a cognisable offence under section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC),  while ensuring that the information in Schedule A to this AC is mentioned properly in the complaint.

Thanking all political parties for supporting the bill, Mazari wrote on her Twitter handle:  "I am pleased that all the political parties have support the bill, I am also thankful to the Human Right Committees of Senate and National Assembly for their support".

Want to thank everyone inside and outside Parliament and the media for helping us get the Bill through all the hurdles.

— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) March 11, 2020

The bill against the child sexual abuse is passed two years after the brutal rape and murder of nine-year-old Zainab Ansari in Kasur  that shook nation’s collective conscience in 2018.

The horrific incident had drawn a countrywide outrage and raised questions over the safety of children and responsibilities on the part of the authorities concerned to prevent increasing incidents of child abuse in the country.