Pakistan National Assembly has passed the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Bill, 2019 with a majority vote.
The country’s Senate offered its approval to the law that aims to accelerate scrutiny and punishment for executioners of child abuse.
The bill was first passed by the National Assembly in January and approved by the Upper House last week with some amendments including the necessity to broaden the scope of the bill from being restricted to Islamabad only, to the entire country.
The amended bill was then tabled in the Lower House by Pakistan’s human rights minister, Shireen Mazari, and was passed by an overwhelming majority through a voice vote
Mazari tweeted that the bill’s passage had been “a long struggle” and thanked colleagues for helping it clear several obstacles.
“Under Section 364-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), a person who abducts a child under the age of 14 “in order that such a child may be murdered or subjected to grievous hurt, or slavery, or to the lust of any person shall be punished with death or with imprisonment for life or with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to 14 years and shall not be less than seven years,” Pakistan’s human rights minister, Shireen Mazari, said.
“The nation’s first national child abuse law will introduce a penalty of life imprisonment for child abuse”, he added.
According to the law, police are required to register a case within two hours of a child being reported missing by their parents.
The officer in charge is expected to reduce the same into writing as prescribed for a cognizable offence under Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and will be required to start an inquiry of the case.
Police officials neglecting to comply with this condition will be punished with imprisonment of up to two years and a penalty of Rs100,000.
The provisions of CrPC will pertain to the proceedings delivered under the Zainab Alert bill, except in circumstances of juvenile suspects who will be dealt with under the Juvenile Justice System Act, 2018.
The bill also provides for special courts that will be confined to resolve sexual abuse cases involving children under the age of 18 within three months.
It comprises measures to hasten the process, including the installation of a dedicated helpline and the establishment of Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Agency (ZARRA) to issue lookouts for a missing child. ZARRA will coordinate with all pertinent national and regional councils and law enforcement agencies, and maintain an online database of all children recorded missing or abducted along with their current status.
Police will inform ZARRA about an incident of a child missing or abducted within two hours of receiving such a report and if the agency directly receives information of a child going missing or having been abducted, it will inform the relevant police station immediately.
Pakistan’s parliament passed the law against child abuse in the trail of the Zainab Ansari case, the rape and murder of a six-year-old that shocked Pakistan in 2018.
The bill is named after six-year-old Zainab Ansari, who was murdered after being raped in Kasur, Pakistan in 2018. The incident spurred outrage in the country and put forward concerns over the security of children and accountabilities of authorities to deter heightening incidents of child abuse in Pakistan.
Zainab’s case ignited debate in Pakistan over whether to educate children on how to guard against sex abuse, a taboo subject in the nation.
There had been many reports of missing children in the Kasur district since 2015 when officers unearthed a paedophile ring linked to a prominent local family.
Nearly 10 cases of child abuse a day are reported in Pakistan, with girls disproportionately affected, according to Sahil, an organisation that works on child protection. This law, if effectively implemented has the scope to influence a positive decline in occurrences of child abuse.
