'Zainab Alert'

Two years and two days ago in the city of Kasur nine-year-old Zainab Ansari was raped and killed by a serial killer. By then the same area had earned notoriety of being a safe haven for a gang of pedophiles who would force minor girls and boys to perform sexual acts. The criminals would either sell the video clips of these acts internationally or blackmail the families of children to extort millions in cash and jewellery from them. Thanks to extensive media coverage of her misfortune, there was national uproar against this case of sexual abuse and murder. The criminal was arrested, tried and hanged. But that's not the norm; while the incidence of child sexual abuse is pervasive not many a criminal is tried and punished. What happened with Zainab was not the first case of child sexual abuse or the last. NGO Sahil, for example, has reported 1,300 cases of child abuse in first six months of 2019. In 2018, more than 10 children were being sexually abused every day - a macabre statistic as it was 11 percent more than a year before. Historically, however, the official response to this reprehensible practice fell short of expectation. MNA Asad Umar had then moved the assembly to legislate a law to penalize offences of child abuse but that was not taken up. Even the present assembly took nine months for the said bill to debate and pass it. The Zainab Alert, Recovery and Response Bill 2019 will become law only after it is also passed by the Senate, and that is quite likely. But given devolution of powers under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, it is applicable only in the federal capital; for its countrywide application it must be passed by all the provincial assemblies.

The trial under this Act shall be completed in three months. According to Clause 13 of the bill, "For the purposes of this act, whoever kidnaps or abducts any person under the age of 18 years in order that such a person may be murdered or subjected to grievous hurt, or slavery, rape, or that such person may be so disposed as to be put in danger of being murdered or subjected to grievous hurt, or slavery or rape shall be punished with imprisonment for life or with vigorous imprisonment which may extend to 14 years but shall not be less than 10 years". The Clause 14 of the bill covers kidnapping and abduction of children with intention of taking dishonestly any moveable property and prescribes imprisonment for 14 years with a fine of one million rupees. How to go about putting on ground the mechanism for the Zainab Alert is a question that has no easy answer. The bill denies death penalty for the convicts of child abuse offences to expected dismay of those who demanded public hanging of Zainab's murderer and of perpetrator of child abuse in Mansehra.

Probably, the Zainab Alert bill should have been strictly aimed at dealing with cases of child sexual abuse only. One is not sure if the inclusion of child slavery as offence under the bill also covers the incidence of child labour. If so then the proposed Zainab Alert should have the capacity to deal with a case of about 12 million children aged four to 14 who keep the country's factories operating in brutal and squalid conditions. Expectedly, the proposed law covers child slavery as slavery of children below the age of majority. There are quite a few cases in our country that children are sold into slavery in order for their families to repay debt or settle crimes or earn some money if such families are short of cash. Likewise, the abduction with intention of taking dishonestly any moveable property from the child falls in the category of offences dealt with under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). One is certain the concerned parliamentary committee must have burnt the midnight oil to hammer out the text of the said bill, but the better option was its discussion in the full house and in the light of inputs of entities such as NGO Sahil and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.