ISLAMABAD - The government has some fine pieces of laws and acts against child abuse and if implemented in true letter and spirit the ever growing crimes against children in all its forms and manifestations, if not fully eliminated could be reduced to a great extent, says senior lawyers and people working against the growing child abuse in the country.
A Supreme Court lawyer Asmatullah Khan known for his expertise in human rights related cases said that there was nothing wrong with the laws and acts dealing with the matter but the main issue was the slackness and indifference on part of the implementing authorities due to which the situation on ground was not improving on fast pace.
A social worker, who had been associated with a civil society organisation working on women rights in slums areas, said that both women and children are among the most vulnerable segments of society and are subjected to exploitation, with no state apparatus in place to protect them.
He further said that despite the fact that Pakistan is signatory to all the conventions on protection of children rights and against all sort of exploitations against them but when it comes to ground the authorities concerned seemed least concerned over the cases relating to violence against the children and in most of the cases police hushed up the matter without putting it in black and white.
He stressed the need for sensitising police and other law enforcement agencies on such issues as without seriousness on their part things would not change for better and one after the other such scandals would continue to surface referring to the recent case of mega child molestation scandal in village near Kasur unearth by The Nation.
He recalled that in 1999 the case of Javid Iqbal, a serial killer who had molested and killed some 100 youth, and then the net café sex video leaks in Rawalpindi and other cities of the country in 2004, had stunned and shaken the whole nation but the both these mega scandals went into oblivion with the passage of time with no remedial measures taken by the authorities concerned.
 Zulfiqar Ahmad Bhutta, a senior Supreme Court lawyer and human right activist, said that as for the laws protecting the rights of children, women and other weaker segments of society are concerned these are impeccable, but the problem mainly comes when the same would be put in practice.
He held police the main culprit in the whole matter, which in most cases tried to hush up the matter and where they were compelled to register a case they lodge the case deliberately leaving lacunae in it so that when it comes to the court of law for trial the culprits could easily got off the hook due to the loopholes in most of the cases deliberately left in it during the course of investigation.
He said that the whole police culture needed to be changed and they should be sensitised on the issues relating to the cases of rights violation against children and women, relatively the weaker segments of society.
To a question, Zulfiqar Ahmad Bhutta said that he saw nothing wrong with the laws and acts for the protections of rights of children and said that all these laws are very much in consonance with the international conventions of children rights.
To another question, he said that though after the adoption of 18th Constitutional Amendment most of the laws dealing with protection of children, especially like child labour, domestic violence and other related crimes against children went into the provincial purview, even then the federal government could intervene in the matter relating to the abuses against children and women in the provinces.
Terming the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act 2004 as a fine piece of legislation enacted by the Punjab legislature, Zulfiqar Ahmad Bhutta said that it was so comprehensive that after its enactment a number of laws and acts to protect children, including Punjab Supervision and Control of Children Homes Act 1976, Punjab Children Ordinance 1983 and Punjab Youthful Offenders Ordinance 1983 have to repeal.