Senate body approves amendment to Zainab Alert Bill

Senate's Functional Committee on Human Rights on Monday approved an amendment in the Zainab Alert Bill calling for expanding the jurisdiction of the proposed law nationwide, previously covering the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) alone.

The Zainab Alert Bill, which addresses sexual crimes against children and proposes sentences for such offences, was passed by the National Assembly in January this year but was blocked in the Upper House after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Mushahidullah Khan insisted that the bill be sent to the Senate committee first.

The committee held under the chairmanship of Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar in which he assured the Zainab Alert Bill will be made more effective and efficient to control abduction and rape cases.

The committee prepared brief recommendations after meeting the ministry and other stakeholders in regard to Zainab Alert Bill in the past two sessions, which the government and law ministry also endorsed, the committee chairman said.

The functional committee approved amendments in the first eight clauses after consulting relevant stakeholders.

The committee decided that the Director General Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Authority (ZARRA) would be appointed after the ministry advertised the post and the names would be forwarded to the prime minister for final selection.

The committee chairman said that the process of the FIR registration was slow and not clear.

The committee chairman said that it took two days for the registration of the FIR in the abduction case of Farishta in Islamabad.

He said that the process needed to be refined so that the FIRs could be registered instantly.

The committee approved 1-2 years of imprisonment along with Rs 50,000-100,000 as fine in case of delay in FIR registration.

In this regard, Senator Dr Mehr Taj Roghani emphasized that unless and until punishment and fines were implemented, the process could not work, while adding that the delay and misbehavior by the police officials needed to end.

The committee also approved special courts for rape and abduction cases of children, which will be supposed to take decisions within three months.

However, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Senator Quratulain Marri objected to the amendment, arguing expanding the jurisdiction of the bill to the entire country would be a violation of the 18th Amendment.

In 2019, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government tabled the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Bill.

The bill proposed setting up of an authority, Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Agency (ZARRA) tasked to maintain a database of missing and abducted children.

A helpline, 1099, will be set up to report and forward all cases to ZARRA.

When a child is reported missing, the agency will activate alerts across the federal capital.

All LEAs and public at large will be provided information such as the child's physical attributes, habits, and clothes.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will generate a message to all service providers regarding the child and the information will also be sent to all electronic and print media.

The agency will also introduce a mobile application allowing public access to the data regarding the missing children.

The bill also proposes a Child Protection Advisory Board to ensure ZARRA performs its functions.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights added death penalty as the maximum sentence, while 10 years imprisonment was set as minimum punishment.

Earlier, the bill only applied to Islamabad because the National Assembly's powers are limited as the bill involves the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the Criminal Code of Procedures (CrPC).

Therefore, the bill would have had to be taken up separately in each of the provincial assemblies in order to be implemented at the provincial level.

The approval comes a day after another horrific case of child abuse emerged in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Hangu district.

On Sunday, police recovered body of an eight-year-old-who, police suspect, was raped before being killed - from bushes in Saro Khel village.