The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Thursday constituted a sub-committee to resolve the issue of determination of parentage of parentless or abandoned children as well as to further strengthen un-attended orphans (rehabilitation and welfare) bill, 2013.
The committee, which met with Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi in the chair, had earlier passed un-attended orphans (rehabilitation and welfare bill, 2013) introduced by Senator Karim Ahmed Khawaja, on August 26, 2013 and sent back to the senate. The senate has again sent the bill to the standing committee to reconsider the bill to resolve the issue of determination of parentage of parentless or abandoned children.
The committee, after taking input from all stockholders including National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), Ministry of Law, Human Rights, Social Welfare Department of different provinces, non-government organisations (NGOs) dealing with unattended children, Pakistan Sweet Home Foundation whose representatives attended the meeting regarding the determination of parentage issue of unattended children, has formed three members sub-committee headed by senator Muhammad Ali Khan Saif to bring out the solution of the issue in the light of discussion held during the meeting.
Abbasi said that the issue of abandoned and non-attended children, especially determination of their parentage is of great importance and there is high need of legislation. The sub-committee will review the Human Rights Act, Standard Operation Procedure (SOPs) of NADRA for registration of abandon children, Punjab Protection Act and consult CII to further improve and strengthen the Bill in order to address matter of registration and adoption of abandoned children in a better and comprehensive manner.
Director General Brigadier Muhammad Nisar (Retd) told the meeting that Nadra has already started issuing of smart cards to parentless or unattended children since May 20, 2014 after giving them computer generated parent name, following the directives of the Supreme Court (SC). Nadra has also consulted CII and fatwas have also been sought from religious scholars in Iran and Saudi Arabia to iron out this festering issue, he said. He said that Nadra has so far issued smart cards to 1036 such kinds of children after assigning them computerised names.
Dr Inamullah DG CII said that CII is also holding deliberation internally over the issue as it was first raised with council in 1987 and then in 2006 and 2011. He said that assigning computerised names for fake name to the parentless or abandon children cannot be justified with reference to Islamic Shariah law. The DG CII suggested that Nadra should create a column for guardian with the parent column in the registration form of parentless or abandon children.
Sharafat A Chaudhry Legal Consultant for Ministry of Human Right said the protection and welfare of unattended children or children with unknown patronage is a national issue and to solve it comprehensively a national policy and federal legislation is required.
He further said that under Article 35 of the Constitution, the state is responsible to protect all children regardless of their social, economic or ethnic status. Skaikh Sarfaraz Ahmed, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice, suggest providing the Ministry all the relevant bills for proposing a comprehensive legislation. Senator Kareem S Khawaja said that facilitation of abandoned children is necessary and effective legislation should be done to facilitate them and make them respectable members of the society.
Senator Barrister Saif added that Islam is the religion for whole humanity and it safeguards rights of all the segments of the society including abandoned children. The Nadra should inform foreign mission regarding issuance of smart card to unattended children after assigning them computerised name, he said.
Zamarud Khan Chairman Pakistan Sweet Home urged the government to make legislation for registration of unattended or abandon children across the country as without their registration it would be impossible to resolve their issues. The government should bind all non-government organisations which are dealing with unattended children to register all children with them and take strict action against those who avoid registration of unattended children, he said.
Representatives of different NGOs, while giving their point of views on bill said that the word boy and girl should be replaced with some other words because there are countless cases of people having non-parentage status who are above 18 years old. Another representative from NGO stated that not only registration procedure but adoption procedure of abandoned children should also be defined through legislation.