Kasur scandal: HRCP urges government to establish trauma centers for victims

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has urged the government to establish trauma and counselling centers for the victims of Kasur Child Abuse scandal so that they can start a new life. Addressing a press conference here on Monday Chairman HRCP, former Justice Ali Nawaz while confirming large scale child abuse in Kasur expressed grave concern and said that HRCP in collaboration with District co-ordination Officer (DCO), District Police Officer (DPO), civil society organisations and local representatives will establish a trauma counselling center in Kasur for the victims.
He said that the event shows complete failure of law enforcement agencies besides declining social values of our society and the government must take solid steps in checking such tragedies in future. He said that NCHR has found that children were sexually abused on large scale since 2010 and victims along with their parents were being blackmailed by the perpetrators.
"The crime prevention mechanism and social protection mechanism of the state failed in protecting the children," the NCHR said in its investigation report. The report recommended stringent accountability action against the concerned officials including the police and District Police Officer (DPO) for their negligence. The commission advised the federal govt to take steps for expeditious enactment of the pending bills which are the Criminal laws Amendment Bill 2009, National Commission on the Rights of the Children Bill 2009 and The Charter on the Child Rights Bill, 2009.
The commission also suggested the govt to check flaws in the Police Act 2002. The commission said that the definition of sexual abuse of children should be expanded, child pornography should be criminalized and ban internal trafficking which is a major contributor in organised sexual abuse of children and requests the Punjab government to establish a Trauma & Counselling Centre in Kasur. He said that the federal government following the recommendations of a parliamentary body established a commission to find the facts and now it was the responsibility of the respective governments to act on the findings of the commission.
The fact finding committee comprises of chaudhary Mohammad Shafiq, Kashwar Shaheen and Ishaq Masseh, who investigated the Kasur tragedy. Inspector General Police (IGP) Punjab, Mushtaq Sakheera, briefed the fact finding committee in a high level meeting which was also attended by Chief Secretary and Home Secretary Punjab. The authorities need to show more commitment to implement the recommendation forwarded by the Committee on the Rights of the Child on prevention of abuse and exploitation of children and also the relevant child-specific recommendations that Pakistan had accepted and agreed to implement during its second universal periodic review in 2012, he added.