In a country where children are kidnapped, raped and killed. In a country where every workshop, road side hotels, homes have a large number of children doing forced labor. In a country where number of children out of schools is more than the total population of many developed countries, the only commission to take care of children is working without salaries and with no budget for last two years.
How much importance the present gov attaches to the rights of children, can be seen in the state of the National Commission on Rights of Children (NCRC) where no funds have been issued since the establishment of the Commission. A country where abuse of children rights is daily routine matter from forced labor to kidnap, rape and kill, the commission supposed to control such incidents and crimes against children has been left in lurch.
It was complete 2 years ago that Parliament of Pakistan passed the act of NCRC. Ms Afshan Tehseen Bajwa was appointed Chairperson of the Commission keeping in view her life time work and experience in the concerned sector. 5 members were also appointed , one from each federating unit of Pakistan.
Afshan Tehseen took this challenge as national responsibility and made the commission functional in no time. The commission falls under Ministry of Human Rights whose incharg is Ms Shereen Mazari. Unfortunately , Minister failed to allocated required funds for the salaries and other expenditures of the Commission.
Every time when the chairperson derived attention of the minister towards the funds , the minister put it onto back burner on the lame excuse that the rules have not been prepared.
NCRC prepared the rules with the help of experts who volunteered as contribution to a national and community cause. Interestingly the rules were lost in the ministry what the concerned in the ministry shared with the commission.
Pakistan is a country where more than 30 Million children do not attend school and go to workshops and hotels for work. They are tortured and abused there. When they grow up , they take revenge from the society.
If we want to prepare better citizens for our future , we have to strengthen the efforts of the departments that are working on the children’s rights. National Commission for Rights of Children is one of them.
Prime Minister , Minister for Human Rights are expected to take necessary action in this regard if they are sincere in bringing change in country as per their own claims and promises to the public.
Tazeen Akhtar
