Zainab Ansari, a 7-year old schoolgirl, was kidnapped on January 4, 2018 from near her aunt’s house in Kasur, and was raped and murdered. Image Credit: Supplied

Islamabad: A year after the rape and murder of 7-year-old Zainab in Kasur shook Pakistan, the provincial Punjab government is yet to announce a child protection policy despite several calls from civil society, parents and teachers.

In the last five months, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has not held a single meeting to take up issues relating to cases of child sexual abuse, thus it is far from appointing even the chairperson of the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau, activists say.

According to a Federal Ombudsman’s report made public last week, over the last ten years, there has been a 16 per cent rise in cases of child sexual abuse reported in the country.

Last year alone, the report says, around 4,000 such incidents were reported — the majority of them in Punjab’s districts including Lahore, Kasur, Okara and Rawalpindi.

In Kasur alone, 272 such cases of child sexual abuse were reported.

However, these alarming figures go unnoticed by the provincial government led by Sardar Usman Buzdar, who enjoys party chairman and Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan’s full support.

While talking to Gulf News on Friday, Iftikhar Mubarak, CEO of Search for Justice and Children Advocacy Network said though the current government could be given the benefit of the doubt as it only recently took power — have been at the helm for only five months — yet even that is a sufficient period to do some ground work or set policy direction.

“We have written to Chief Minister Buzdar for taking some time out of his busy schedule so that matters relating to devising and announcing a comprehensive child protection policy could be discussed but we have been told to wait,” Mubarak said.

The killing of Zainab rang alarm bells last year, but the then government of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) — instead of taking the bull by the horns — satisfied itself by taking some superficial steps.

Referring to a booklet published by the erstwhile PML-N government in Punjab, titled “Mehfooz Bachay Mazboot Pakistan” or “Safe Children, Strong Pakistan”, Mubarak said in February 2018, a meeting was held to discuss how to prevent child sexual abuse in schools.

“The meeting held in Lahore was attended by religious scholars from almost all schools of thought and representatives of minority communities. The then home minister Rana Sanaullah chaired the meeting and it was decided to distribute that booklet containing important information and guidelines for the parents and teachers to prevent sexual abuse of the children to all the schools working under the Punjab government in order to sensitise the teachers about child sexual abuse. Later, in a survey it came out very few schools and teachers received that booklet,” said Iftikhar Mubarak.

Even the post of the director-general of the child protection bureau remains vacant and an additional secretary of the home department is looking after the affairs of the bureau on an ad-hoc basis.

Issues of child sexual abuse, he said, required a separate ministry as seen in the case of Sri Lanka where a women and children ministry is exclusively looking after the welfare and protection of this segment of society.

Abuse is prevalent in Pakistan in general, and Punjab in particular, but no such separate ministry is established to address such issues, Mubarak said.

He said the Child Protection Bureau falls within the ambit of the home ministry and has no representation at Cabinet level.

Zainab Ansari, a 7-year old schoolgirl, was kidnapped on January 4, 2018 from near her aunt’s house in Kasur where she was living while her parents had gone to Saudi Arabia for performing Umrah.

Five days later, on January 10, her body was found at a garbage heap nearby.