Sindh: Vehicle Tax
June 4, 2020
A bird released from a cage
June 12, 2020

Ms. Shireen Mazari                 June 5, 2020

Minister of Human Rights.

Reform or Resign

Greetings.

 

As the Minister of Human Rights, you are responsible to ensure that adequate measures are in place for protection of children. Sadly the care and attention given even to stray dogs in Turkey, far exceeds the protective measures we have in place for our children in Pakistan.   These lapses have resulted in the death of 8 year old girl Zohra Shah, for which we hold you directly responsible.

The fact that our child protection laws are voluminous, contradictory and convoluted is known to all.   Of the 35 National and Provincial  Child Protection Acts, there are no two Acts  which agree on if and when a child can or cannot be a domestic worker. Many even differ on the basic definition of a child.   You completely failed to understand the problem and did nothing to resolve these conflicts.

We demand that Article 11(3) of the constitution be amended to read, “ No child below the age of sixteen shall be engaged in any house hold, factory, mine, hazardous or non-hazardous employment in any capacity.  Children from 16 to 18 may work only in non-hazardous occupations, and only under well defined  code of working conditions and hours.”      

Please make a public statement that you will, within the next few days introduce this constitutional amendment in the Parliament. You must have the moral courage to resign if you are unable to reform the cruel and exploitative system that repeatedly results in torture and death of our children.

Sincerely

Naeem Sadiq