Maryam urges parents to prioritise children’s safety after Sargodha, Lahore incidents

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Friday asked parents to take greater care of their children’s safety and avoid leaving them unattended when sending them outside the home, referring to the recent rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Sargodha and a roof collapse at a private tuition centre in Lahore that killed 14 children.

She made the remarks in a televised address to the National Paigham-i-Aman Committee, where she spoke about both incidents and said the state could provide services such as transport and health facilities, but public safety also depended on what happened within families and communities.

Referring to the Sargodha case, Maryam said the girl had gone alone to a shop, after which, she said, the shopkeeper killed her and concealed the body. She also recalled that investigators identified the suspect through a blood mark found on the child’s slipper, adding that she had taken immediate notice of the case and instructed authorities to arrest the accused.

Speaking about the broader issue, the chief minister said that while she could help create deterrence, she could not see what was happening inside homes, particularly in relation to the upbringing of boys. She said the responsibility did not rest with the government alone and urged parents not to give children unrestricted freedom to go outside unsupervised.

In her appeal to parents, she warned against sending children alone to markets or other places where they could not protect themselves.

“If you must, do things yourself, rather than leaving your children exposed to these monsters,” she said, expressing concern that such people were “walking around freely in our neighbourhoods and streets”.

Maryam also addressed Monday’s roof collapse at a private tuition centre in Lahore, saying she felt grief and responsibility over the tragedy. She said the incident had occurred because of negligence on the part of the tuition centre, but also urged parents to carefully check the safety of places where they send their children, including madressahs, tuition centres and schools.

She appealed to families not to send children to locations where there could be a risk of such accidents. The chief minister said confronting such social problems was a shared responsibility and called on people to play their part.