ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Wednesday passed with amendments the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Bill, 2019, aimed at deterring violence against children, more than two years after abduction, rape and murder of nine-year-old girl Zainab Ansari by a serial killer.

The bill already approved by the National Assembly in January will go back to it and will become law if passed by the lower house of parliament with amendments, following an assent by the president.

The bill was moved in the Senate by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Swati on behalf of Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari.

The ambit of the bill, which was earlier limited to Islamabad, has now been increased to cover the entire country. Under another amendment, station house officers (SHOs) will be bound to register first information reports (FIRs) within two hours after receiving a complaint about a missing or abducted child. The SHOs found to have failed to do so will face up to two-year imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs100,000, besides losing job.

PPP Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, who heads the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights, informed the house that the committee had held seven-eight meetings to discuss the Zainab Alert bill and made some amendments to it. He said that under the existing laws, police often refused to register an FIR when a child was reported missing by his/her parents. This leads to the wastage of crucial initial time after the child’s disappearance.

Foreign minister says Pakistan was not part of talks that led to ‘peace agreement’ between US and Taliban

According to the bill, which Mr Khokhar said now covered all crimes against children, special courts will be bound to decide child sexual abuse cases within three months.

As per the draft presented in the NA, the maximum punishment under the bill for child abuse and killing is life-imprisonment with a fine of Rs1 million, as the proposal for death penalty was rejected by an NA committee. The minimum sentence will be 10 years.

A helpline will be set up to report missing children while the government will establish the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Agency (ZARRA) to issue an alert for a missing child. The agency will be headed by a director general who will be appointed by the prime minister after public advertisement, according to a copy of the bill.

ZARRA will coordinate with the relevant federal and provincial authorities and law enforcement agencies and maintain an online database of all children reported missing or abducted with their current status. Police will inform ZARRA about an incident of a child missing or abducted within two hours of receiving such a report and if the agency directly receives such information, it will inform the relevant police station immediately.

Zainab had gone to a religious tuition centre near her house in the Road Kot area on Jan 4, 2018, from where she is believed to have been abducted. An FIR about her disappearance had been registered on Jan 5 on the complaint of her paternal uncle. Murder charges were added to the FIR on Jan 9 after the victim’s body was recovered.

Police had confirmed on Jan 13, 2018 that the results of DNA testing of samples collected from the crime scene pointed towards the involvement of one culprit in at least seven similar cases in the district. Imran Ali, who was convicted of rape and murder of Zainab was sent to the gallows in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail in October 2018.

‘Pakistan not part of US-Taliban talks’

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi informed the Senate on Wednesday that Pakistan was not part of the talks that led to a ‘peace agreement’ between the United States and Taliban. He said Pakistan was not a guarantor and it just played and would continue to play the role of a facilitator.

Briefing the house on the peace agreement signed in Doha on Feb 29, he said Pakistan could not take responsibility for peace in Afghanistan. “This is a shared responsibility, and all (stakeholders) will have to play their role.”

He said the path to peace in Afghanistan was complicated as many internal and external actors were involved in it. He, however, said a peaceful and stable Afghanistan was in the interest of Pakistan.

Mr Qureshi said Pakistan always wanted responsible withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan. Pakistan wanted a secured and regulated border with Afghanistan, he said, adding that Pakistan did not want to see a security zone for India in Afghanistan.

He said Pakistan did not want an ISIS (militant Islamic State group) footprint to grow in Afghanistan as it would not be in the interest of the region. He said certain elements within Afghanistan had negative perception about Pakistan and Islamabad wanted to enhance engagement to end this.

Mr Qureshi said Pakistan was ready to play the role of a facilitator to mend fences between the United States and Iran.

Earlier, Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri informed the house that the affidavit about finality of Prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him) was still there in the Haj application form. He said the form had just been divided into two parts and the original form, which reached the ministry, had an affidavit in it.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2020