The Pakistani media is giving detailed news about the death of six young children in Lahore due to fire in the house resulting in suffocation and burning of innocent children. Blame is being thrown on fire brigade vehicles that had no water, arrived late and had leaking hose pipe but no one is taking notice of parental responsibility of leaving young children locked up in the house with father on some mission outside and mother attending a Shab-i-Meraj function at night. It was a case of criminal neglect on the part of parents to leave the children locked up in unsafe circumstances while attending outdoor functions at night.
The primary responsibility is of parents in safeguarding the life of their wards. No govt organisation like fire brigade etc could replace the primary parental care in such cases. It is unthinkable as to how parents of six children could leave the children to their own devices in such cases. Actually the parents ought to be charged of criminal neglect in leaving their children unattended at night and locking them from outside so that they could follow their own programmes of celebrating Shab-i-Meraj outside. The primary responsibility is of parents in safeguarding the life of young children and they should be squarely held responsible for the loss of innocent lives.
DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
