Make children good human being: Tessori

Roshni Helpline since its establishment in 2000 has traced more than 7,500 missing children since inception

KARACHI:

Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori has said that mothers instead of forcing their children to become doctors, engineers or big men because of the fear and pressure by society and relatives, they should try to make them a good human being, so that notorious criminals like Javed Iqbal will not be born.

He said this while addressing a national conference on 'Missing and Exploited Children' under Roshni Helpline at a local hotel on the occasion of International Children's Day on Saturday.

The governor said, "We as a society are afraid and ashamed of many things. The negative behaviour of society create criminals like Javed Iqbal, who rape minor children and kill them."

He said, parents should give their children time and be friends with them so that they can share their problems they face outside the home instead of hiding them. There are also thousands of such child abuse cases which are not reported, he said.

He said, "Pakistan is going through difficult times and there is political turmoil. Some people want to weaken Pakistan and many people are joining them who are against the country. This may give benefit to our enemies."

Pakistan is well protected by our strong army people love our armed forces.

Speaking on the occasion, the founder of the Roshni help Line 1138, Mohammad Ali said that the Roshni Helpline since its establishment in 2000 has traced more than 7,500 missing children and handed them over to their parents. Roshni Helpline has suggested various measures regarding online child abuse, abduction and digital crime.

Mohammad Ali told that this year, more than 800 children between the ages of 11 and 18 went missing in Karachi, out of which 729 were recovered. Now it is important to know where the missing children of age group are used.

He said that that Roshni Helpline has established Child Protection Response Centre in collaboration with Sindh Police which ensures registration of FIRs of missing children. So if parents of missing children will go to the police stations, FIR will be registered immediately. Roshni Helpline has also started truck art campaign to create awareness about recovery of missing children and is also working with the Water and Sewerage Board to use water tankers for this campaign. Haji Ameen Ansari, Father of affected girl of Punjab Zainab said, "Today, we need to educate our children under the prevailing situation, so that incidents like Zainab would not happen again."

Legislation was also passed after the Zainab tragedy, but neither the previous nor the current government implemented it. Severe and exemplary punishment should be given in such cases.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2022.