{"id":16599,"date":"2026-01-30T10:42:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T10:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2026\/01\/30\/strengthening-child-protection-parliament\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T10:42:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T10:42:53","slug":"strengthening-child-protection-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2026\/01\/30\/strengthening-child-protection-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"Strengthening Child Protection Through Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Islamabad, January 30, 2026 \u2014 The Parliamentary Caucus of the National Assembly on Child Rights, led by Convenor <strong>Dr. Nikhat Shakeel Khan<\/strong>, and the Sustainable Social Development Organization signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create a structured, results-oriented partnership to strengthen child protection legislation, parliamentary oversight, and policy action nationwide. The agreement was signed on behalf of the caucus by the Acting Secretary of the National Assembly, <strong>Mr. Saeed Ahmed<\/strong>, and by <strong>Mr. Syed Kausar Abbas<\/strong>, Executive Director of SSDO.<\/p>\n<p>Senior parliamentarians and officials attended the signing, including Parliamentary Secretaries <strong>Ms. Zeb Jaffar<\/strong>, <strong>Ms. Rana Ansar<\/strong>, and <strong>Ms. Farah Naz Akbar<\/strong>, Member of the National Assembly <strong>Dr. Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro<\/strong>, Programs Director of SSDO <strong>Ms. Maryam Jawad<\/strong>, and officers and staff from the National Assembly Secretariat. The partnership is designed to combine parliamentary reach with NGO research capacity to deliver practical reform on child protection matters.<\/p>\n<p>Under the MoU the parties reaffirm their commitment to Pakistan\u2019s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and to ensuring the Best Interests of the Child guide all legislative and oversight work. The collaboration will prioritise research-based lawmaking and active parliamentary engagement on topics such as child trafficking, juvenile justice, child labour, early marriage and child abuse, with child protection as the central focus throughout.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement envisages joint Child Rights Budget Analyses and the presentation of evidence-based recommendations to relevant Standing Committees, while facilitating direct engagement with concerned ministries and national child rights institutions. Members of the National Assembly stressed the urgent need for reliable, up-to-date data on child trafficking, abuse and exploitation, noting that robust evidence is essential for effective legislation and meaningful parliamentary oversight.<\/p>\n<p>Acting Secretary <strong>Mr. Saeed Ahmed<\/strong> underscored the importance of research-driven lawmaking and called for full utilisation of data and analytical reports produced through this partnership to inform policy and legislative drafting. The MoU sets a clear pathway for cooperative research, budgeting analysis and parliamentary action aimed at closing gaps in child protection across Pakistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Parliament and SSDO sign MoU to boost child protection through research-driven legislation and parliamentary oversight across Pakistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16599","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\/16599","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=16599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}