Parliament to be a forum to eradicate Child Labour

Parliament to be a forum to eradicate Child Labour

Dr. Jassim Taqui

The Government of Pakistan strongly opposes Child Labour and would use the Parliament as a Forum to eradicate it. To achieve this goal, the system would be strengthened. Already, Pakistan’s parliament is the only parliament in the world to establish  the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals.) SDG has strong linkages with all provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan. I propose to add also AJK (Azad Jammu and Kashmir.)

Those were the highlight of the speech of National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq. He was speaking at a function organized in Serena Hotel jointly by UNICEF and the Ombudsman to commemorate the World Day Against Child Labour.

Earlier the UNICEF’s representative in Pakistan  Angela Kearney paid rich tribute to the Civil Society and NGOs for their achievement in preventing Child Labour. She assured the Speaker of the National Assembly that UNICEF would support the Federal Government in its efforts to eradicate Child Labour.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief of Federal  Ombudsman (FO) Salman Farooq said that since its inception in 1983, the FO redressed the citizens’ complaints against mal-administration on the part of Federal Ministries and Agencies, lodged by over a million Pakistanis. With the Headquarters at Islamabad, FO has nine Regional Offices now at Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Faisalabad, Sukkur, Hyderabad, and D.I. Khan to process and dispose of the complaints within 60 days.

Grievance Commissioners are also appointed to specially address complaints pertaining to Pensioners, Children, Overseas Pakistanis and Civic Agencies like CDA. FO took cognizance of the general complaints that come to its notice either directly or through the media.

The FO addressed all complaint of mal-administration by any Federal Government Agency. The FO’s team made all possible efforts to redress them.

Speaking about Child Labour, Faruqi said the FO was committed to the eradication of Child Labour especially 50 percent of the population of Pakistan are children. Further, the FO established Online Complaint about Children.

The Chief of the  National Commission For Children Ijaz Qureshi said that his commission established a “ functioning Child Labour system” and that the commission was committed to eradicating Child Labour from Pakistan.

UNICEF Children Protection chief Sarah Coleman said that the UNICEF advertised a competition among NGOs and civil society to commemorate Child Labour in Pakistan. A special committee was established to judge the most innovative NGO and short-listed four . The first prize of $35000 was won jointly by Bunyad and Sudhar. The second prize of $ 25000 was given to SSO. The third prize of $ 15000 was given to VADO.