- Public hanging bill passed
Child abuse followed by the brutal killings of the victims is widespread in the country. In several recent cases the PTI administration has failed to trace the perpetrators or get them punished. One can therefore understand its frustration. Incidents of the sort are also reported in Europe and the USA. But the difference is that those involved in the crime are mostly traced by competent agencies using modern technology and are duly punished, though it might take years, as shown by the recent extradition of child sex offender Ikhalaq Hussain from Pakistan to the UK after four years.
Successive governments in Pakistan, including the PTI administration, have displayed unconscionable negligence in enacting child protection laws. It was two years after the rape and brutal killing of Zainab in Kasur that the National Assembly passed the Zainab Alert Bill for recovery of missing children. The bill however had a serious limitation as its jurisdiction was confined only to Islamabad. Had the PTI government been serious it could have got the bill passed at least by three provincial governments under its influence. Unless the provincial assemblies also pass the bill, which they don’t seem inclined to, its utility will be limited.
Even when child protection laws are passed, the governments fail to implement them. Laws have been passed by Punjab and KP against vagrancy, envisaging welfare homes. Had they been effectively implemented, one would not have encountered children begging in the streets of Lahore or Peshawar, who often fall prey to unscrupulous predators.
Incompetent administrations look for snake oils instead of going for painstaking but efficient remedies. A firm and timely implementation of the existing laws can control most of the crimes against children. There are laws against rape and there are laws against murder, but what is lacking is a modern system to track the criminals, collect forensic evidence, prepare a fool-proof case and get the perpetrators sentenced.
As a PTI minister put it, barbarism is not the answer to crimes but another expression of extremism. Public hangings will fail to put an end to horrendous crimes against children but provide an occasion to interested quarters to malign Pakistan in the international community.
