LAHORE: Inspector General Police Punjab has to apprise the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Saturday about the facts behind kidnapping of children and strategy to be adopted to investigate kidnappings.
The IGP will make a full presentation to the SCBA after which the bar would decide its future discourse which may include becoming a party to the case in the Supreme Court of Pakistan and offer its suggestions for improvement in the law and order.
According to a press statement issued yesterday evening, SCBA President Barrister Syed Ali Zafar constituted an Emergency Committee and made a request to the IGP to assist the committee to enquire into the rising tide of kidnappings of children.
Mr. Zafar said children were at the same time the most precious asset of the nation and the most vulnerable members of the society and pointed out that the number of children being reported to be kidnapped was most alarming and dangerous. He said that the State is bound under Article 9 of the Constitution to protect the lives of its children, and it is the highest duty of the government and police to save them from harm, and if one life of a child is endangered, it can be devastating.
According to him, even if the cases where the children have run away from homes are ignored, the figures suggest that there are definitely criminal gangs operating within Punjab as well as other Provinces who are kidnapping children for sexual abuse, begging, labour or trafficking. He claimed that kidnapping of children by terrorists to be brainwashed for use in terrorist activities also cannot be ruled out, and it is therefore imperative that in order to protect Pakistan’s children and tackle this menace, a national task force consisting of representatives from the Intelligence Services of Pakistan and all police forces throughout the country may have to be created at the Federal level, which would be responsible for undertaking enquiry and investigation in cases of kidnappings, particularly where there is suspicion of some gangs or terrorists being involved. He said that the nation has woken up now on a matter which was in the closets that is why even the Supreme Court of Pakistan has taken jurisdiction of the issue and summoned the Police to give a report in the matter.