KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has decided to establish Child Protection Units at all the Women Police Stations to deal with child abuse cases.
He took this decision while presiding over a meeting of Child Protection Committee (CPU) here at the CM House. The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, Sohail Anwar Siyal, Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, IG Sindh AD Khowaja, Justice (rtd) Nasir Aslam Zahid, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Secretary Education Iqbal Durrani, Advocate Zia Awan, Shahzad Roy and others.
The chief minister said: “The children are our hope, our future and beauty of our society; therefore, we have to protect them from abuse and have to nurture them with self-respect, dignity and care.”.
He directed CPU to convene its meeting, involve some experts on child abuse and firm up solid and workable recommendations for establishing the units where children, their parents/guardian or friends of the society can approach easily. “I want to receive these recommendations within a week,” he said.
A proposal of establishing CPU at every police station was discussed in the meeting but the chief minister said that the police stations had different perception. “Mostly, people avoid to go there, therefore, soft, descent and friendly units be established where not only the child [abused] and parents can approach easily.” “I am of the view that women police stations may be appropriate place where such kind of cases could be dealt,” he said.
The IG police proposed that a separate desk for child protection could also be established at Police Facilitation Centers. The social welfare department proposed to establish a separate police force comprising senor lady police officers with other properly trained policemen to deal with such cases.
The chief minister said that he wanted concrete measures for the child protection. “The child protection unit should be seen operating and giving results,” he said and added the Child Protection Authority (CPA) should hold its full session meeting and come up with solid recommendation. “I don’t have problem with sparing funds for the purpose and even I am ready to outsource the centers but want results,” he said.
The proposal to establish CPU at women police stations had been approved but its implementation would be made when Child Protection Authority would come up with other proposals within a week.