President for implementation of ‘ZARRA-2020’ to help protect children

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has called for greater collaborations among civil society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and national and provincial government departments to raise awareness about the issue of abducted and missing children.

“Steps should be taken to ensure the implementation of Zainab Alert Response & Recovery Act (ZARRA) 2020 throughout the country to protect and safeguard our children.” The president expressed these views while chairing a meeting regarding the implementation of Zainab Alert Response and Recovery Act (ZARRA), 2020, at Aiwan-e-Sadr, on Tuesday.

The meeting was attended by Secretary Ministry of Human Rights Allah Dino Khawaja, director general ZARRA, representatives of different NGOs working for children’s rights, and senior government officials.

During the meeting, the president emphasized the need for awareness at the grassroots level about the ZARRA Act and the responsibility of police officials to ensure timely registration of complaints and FIRs about missing children. He also called for raising awareness about the ZARRA helpline “1099” among the people to timely register complaints.

The president said that the response time of the local police to missing children’s complaints should be improved and they should take prompt action to find missing children as the first 24 hours after a child’s disappearance were critical for their recovery. He also called for increasing cooperation among civil society and government departments to protect and recover missing children, besides providing psycho-social counseling to affected children and their families.

During the meeting, the president highlighted the need for further improving the implementation of ZARRA Act by identifying gaps and shortcomings in its implementation at the provincial and district levels. He said that after taking input and advice from civil society and NGOs, corrective measures should be taken to bring about improvements.

The president stated that ZARRA’s coverage should be extended to the entire country by allocating adequate resources and creating awareness among the people. He also called for ensuring better management of alerts and complaints about missing children on 1099 helpline, the PM Citizen’s Portal, and the ZARRA App by ensuring 24/7 service to the complainants.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023