BackIn order to create awareness and to bring the issue of child labour on our national agenda, the Office of the National Commissioner for Children in the Federal Ombudsman of Pakistan Secretariat with the help of UNICEF organized a major event at Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) on Tuesday, 16.06.
Addressing the event, Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a Province of Pakistan Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi, Chief Guest of the ceremony, emphasized the positive role of children in Pakistan and said that the overall state of the children in Pakistan was in severe need of attention raising awareness and bringing the issue of child labour in Pakistan on to the national agenda and advocating for policy, legal, institutional and administrative investment towards elimination of child labour in Pakistan.
He underlined the right of children to life, justice, education, better health and food, adequate living standards, safety from all forms of abuse and said that these are marked major issues concerning children rights in the United Nations Convention of Rights of Child (UNCRC) to which Pakistan is a signatory.
Sardar Mehtab said that the protection of child rights was Pakistan’s constitutional and international obligation and emphasized on all stakeholders including the government and civil society to give top priority to this issue.
Winding up his speech, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Abbasi highly appreciated the efforts put in by the National Commissioner’s office in the Federal Ombudsman of Pakistan and UNICEF in organizing such a fine function with relevance to children which is no doubt a neglected stratum of this society.
Meanwhile, a documentary was also shown aimed to sensitize the audience about the issues and problems faced by the children of the country.
The function was attended among others by Mr. Salman Faruqui, Federal Ombudsman of Pakistan, Mr. Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi, National Commissioner for Children, the provincial Ombudsman, senior level policy makers, academia, civil society, media and federal/provincial government departments.
Source: Ombudsman Secretariat, Pakistan
