Child labour and govt. policies

According to media news Sawati girl Malala has reached Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Hospital is highly specialized in gun shoot wounds treatment and team of surgeons will decide further course of Malala treatment. Government efforts must be appreciated to facilitate Malala and send her to UK for better treatment. After historic role of government people of Pakistan hope that government would also play its role to provide better facilities to thousands of other Malala like children who are facing bad to worse these day.

According to human rights organization due to government silence and weak laws child labor in Pakistan is growing at an alarming rate. Due to worse economic crises thousands of children struggle to achieve basic necessities of life. Only month ago several infants lost their lives in the Children's Hospital in Larkana in front of their poor parents due to a long hours power outage and non availability of oxygen in the hospital emergency ward. Larkana is birth place of ruling PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Only weeks ago several children burn to death in Karachi garment factory fire incident.

According to government own statistics 90 percent of the one million workers in the carpet industry are children. Two million children died each year from infection spread by dirty water or the lack of toilets facilities in rural areas. Recently newspapers published picture of young women who lost her baby due to strike of junior doctors in Lahore Hospital. Strikes of Doctors has become daily routine in government hospitals and children are worse affected. Due to powerful feudal system and government lack of interest estimated 7.3 million primary school aged children in Pakistan do not attend any type of school. Thousands of schools and their staff is only available on papers politically appointed staff is getting all facilities without doing any work. Due to government silence ghost schools and ghost teachers has become true reality in Pakistan. Recently Supreme Court of Pakistan took a suo motu notice of Jirga decision in Baluchistan province to give away 13 minor girls to settle tribal dispute.

KHAWAJA UMER FAROOQ

Jeddah