ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Feb 16 expressed grave concern over the failure of government functionaries to take appropriate, effective measures for the protection of children against different social evils.
“Policies were confined to papers only as their implementation seemed to be invisible at grossroots level,” parliamentarians noted at ameeting of the NA Standing Committee on Human Rights held in the Parliament House. Ms Syeda Nousheen Iftikhar, MNA presided over the meeting.
Members of the committee said that concerned ministries, departments failed to play impressive role over the period of time for the protection of children against social evils like child abuse, drug abuse, child sexual harassment, child begging, human trafficking.
Similarly , no proper steps could be taken for the safety of orphans due to lack of coordination between the ministries/departments responsible to stop such social problems. The Committee, therefore, decided to invite Nadra chairman, Islamabad IG, DG FIA in the next meeting so that concrete measures could be adopted to stop such crimes in future.
The committee endorsed the budgetary proposals of the Human Rights Ministry and its attached departments for the Fiscal Year 2026-27 and directed that approved projects be completed within given timeframe.
The panel deferred “The Pakistan Climate Refugees Rights and Protection Bill, 2024” moved by MNA Mohammad Moin Aamir Pirzada and decided to invite Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in the next meeting for in-depth analysis of the proposed legislation.
Earlier, Secretary Human Rights briefly apprised the Committee about the performance of the Ministry and problems faced by them in this regard. He sought support of the Committee in resolving their issues especially enhancement of budget allocation to produce desired results.
The meeting was attended by the MNA’s, Ms. Zeb Jaffar, Ms. Zahra Wadood Fatemi, Ms. Tamkeen Akhtar Niazi, Ms. Sehar Kamran, Naveed Aamir, Khawaja Izhar Ul Hassan.
Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2026.
