Child domestic labour banned in Islamabad

Provinces can adopt similar resolutions, says Dr Shireen Mazari

ISLAMABAD:

Child domestic labour in the federal capital was banned on Wednesday through a gazette notification. The notification came after being ratified by the federal cabinet.

Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari in a tweet on the microblogging site Twitter wrote, “finally cabinet decision enforced through Gazette notification.

Child Domestic Labour proscribed under the 1991 Child Employment Act - valid for ICT but provinces can adopt through a simple provincial assembly resolution of the same.”

She further claimed that this was the first time child domestic labour had been proscribed in Pakistan. The notification comes after multiple cases had emerged in the twin cities where child domestic workers were subject to abuse.

Recently, a case emerged in Rawalpindi where a seven-year-old child maid Zahra Shah was brutally murdered by her employers for freeing an expensive parrot.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2020.