Under the leadership of Dr. Nikhat Shakeel Khan, the Parliamentary Caucus on Child Rights met at Parliament House to confront the rising tide of child abuse and low conviction rates in Pakistan. Lawmakers and former legislators gathered to review evidence, identify legal and institutional gaps, and map actionable steps to strengthen child protection across provinces.<\/p>\n
The Sustainable Social Development Organization presented province-level data obtained through the Right to Information Act, outlining the prevalence of child abuse, child labour, early marriages, trafficking and other forms of exploitation, along with conviction statistics from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Islamabad. Participants noted that improving conviction rates is essential to deter offenders and restore public confidence in the justice system.<\/p>\n
Speakers recommended a range of prevention and response measures to advance child rights, beginning with education and awareness. Parliamentary Secretaries and MNAs urged workshops in schools to teach children and parents about physical safety using storytelling and age-appropriate explanations such as ‘good touch, bad touch’, and called for harassment awareness to be integrated into school curricula to build long-term resilience.<\/p>\n
Members emphasised the power of visual media to change behaviours, suggesting films and visual aids to sensitise parents, children and teachers. Constituency feedback highlighted risks when children are left unsupervised with relatives or domestic staff, prompting calls for community-level outreach and caregiver training to reduce vulnerability.<\/p>\n
Parliamentarians also focused on institutional reforms to protect victims and ensure timely justice. Proposals included expedited prosecution to shield victims from pressure, comprehensive training and counselling for educators and school staff, and stronger mechanisms to regulate safety in both schools and madrassas. Legal experts stressed reinforcing frameworks to rescue children forced into beggary by exploitative relatives and to hold facilitators accountable.<\/p>\n
Innovation and cross-sector collaboration were raised as practical steps to strengthen safeguards, with a recommendation to explore anti-harassment features on mobile phones and gaming consoles in coordination with the Ministry of IT. Participants agreed that prevention, survivor support and faster convictions together form the backbone of an effective child protection strategy.<\/p>\n
Dr. Nikhat Shakeel Khan thanked members and civil society partners for their commitment to child rights and acknowledged the contribution of the SSDO team. The meeting concluded with a group photograph to mark a renewed parliamentary push to protect Pakistan’s children and follow up on the policy measures discussed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Parliamentary Caucus advances child rights with proposals to curb abuse and raise conviction rates across Pakistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}