National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza stressed upon the need to eliminate child labour from the country and promote education at a national conference on children’s rights entitled “The post 18th Amendment Scenario” on Saturday. Fehmida said that true democracy had brought revolutionary changes to Pakistan which reaffirmed the government’s commitment to children’s rights and human rights, adding that her party’s government had taken numerous steps to protect the basic rights of children. She said that the historic 18th Amendment was passed because of the efforts of her party’s leadership, under which universal education had been made free and compulsory through Article 25(A).
“This, in fact, is the manifestation of the leadership’s resolve that education is the basic need and a birthright of every child. Japan learnt this lesson back in the 18th century and declared education compulsory for all children above the age of 4. Today it leads the world in all vistas of innovation, technology and socio-economic well-being,” the speaker said.
She said countries such as China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan had also chosen the same path to educate their young generation despite being confronted by conflicts, wars and external aggression. “All of them, today, have an over 85 percent literacy rate – some even 90 plus – which has enabled them to make a comeback,” she said, adding that Pakistan too could emerge successful from its challenges if it succeeded in educating its young.
Commenting on the “curse of child labour”, she said that the constitution prohibited child labour through Clause 3 of Article 11 and Paragraph (e) of Article 37. “But unfortunately, it is being practised unabated. There is, therefore, a need to check the trend not only through punitive actions but also by providing viable alternatives,” she stated.
Fehmida said such affirmative action was also vital for the achievement of the 8 Millennium Development Goals, which bound Pakistan to eradicate poverty and hunger, reduce child and maternal mortality rates, ensure universal education and guarantee child health by the year 2015.
She said Pakistan was duty-bound to ensure the fulfilment of all such international commitments, treaties and conventions that it had signed and ratified but in the post 18th Amendment scenario, the required planning, legislation and implementation of all such social sector reforms was to be taken care of by the provinces.
