LAHORE: Provincial Minister for Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal (SW&BM) Syed Yawar Abbas Bukhari has requested the child rights defenders in government and private organizations to “put aside their egos and think collectively for elimination of child abuse”.

The minister made this assertion while chairing a meeting in the Committee Room of the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday to review the status of existing laws on child protection and discussed different aspects for further improvements.

Secretary SW&BM Hassan Iqbal, Secretary Public Prosecution Nadeem Sarwar, Director General SW&BM Shahid Niaz and representatives from Home Department, Women Welfare Departments and UNICEF participated in the meeting.

“Let’s put aside egos and think collectively for elimination of child abuse,” the minister stressed, adding that a comprehensive policy free from ambiguity laws is necessary for the protection and welfare of children. “Counseling and rehabilitation of abused children is a sensitive matter for which all the stakeholders concerned should work jointly for elimination of psychological exploitation of children,” Yawar added.

The minister said that a coordinated cooperation of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) can also be helpful in achieving the targets. He told the meeting that as a special juvenile court is working in Lahore, the Punjab government is working to establish such more courts in other parts of the province to ensure swift protections of the children. “There is no harm in studying initiatives on child protection taken by other provinces,” he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021