Karachi, June 16 2006: A seminar on “Children in Difficult Circumstances in Sindh” was organised by Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), a children rights advocacy group, at a local hotel on June 15. The seminar was attended by a diverse group of audience, ranging form media personnel, human rights activists to lawyers and analysts.

The speakers urged the government to take necessary measures to implement the laws protecting child rights and increase spending on development. Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid pointed out that the judicial system of Pakistan and India has developed a very wrong tradition of convicting and sentencing the under trial prisoners simultaneously.

He said that the judiciary in the developed countries first decides a trial and then takes its time to decide the sentence. Qindeel Shujaat, Executive Director SPARC, said: “The government is not keen to invest on children though they are the future of this country. We lack element of planning expertise and often prefer to act without planning that’s why the issues continue to aggravate.”

He said years-long efforts of civil society brought about positive change in the government attitude towards rights issues, forcing it to recognise many of them. He added that a large portion of social sector budget remains unutilised although the sector receives insufficient funds. He urged the need of proper utilisation of social sector budget and hoped it would bring positive results.

Advocate Zia Awan said: “49 per cent of our population comprises children, however, the government does not spend even 50 per cent of the social sector budget on them.” He exhorted civil society activists to see if the power devolution plan has produced good results in terms of improvement in the condition of children. He pointed out that the children are committing suicide due to different factors that is horrible as it never happened in the past.
Source: The News
Date:6/16/2006