Collaboration needed for recovery of missing children: President

F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday said that to raise awareness about the issue of abducted and missing children, greater collaborations is needed among the civil society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), national and provincial government departments.
He called for taking steps to ensure the implementation of Zainab Alert Response & Recovery Act (ZARRA) 2020 throughout the country to protect and safeguard our children. President Alvi was chairing a meeting regarding the implementation of Zainab Alert Response & Recovery Act (ZARRA) 2020, at Aiwan-e-Sadr, President Secretariat Press Wing said in a press release.
The meeting was attended by Secretary Ministry of Human Rights Allah Dino Khowaja, Director General ZARRA, representatives of different NGOs working for children’s rights, and senior government officials. During the meeting, the President emphasized the need for awareness at the grassroots levels about the ZARRA Act and responsibility of police officials to ensure timely registration of complaints and FIRs about the missing children.
He also called for raising awareness about the ZARRA helpline “1099” among the people to timely register complaints. President Alvi said that response time of the local police to missing children’s complaints should be improved and they should take prompt action to find missing children as the first 24 hours after a child’s disappearance were critical for their recovery.
He called for increasing cooperation among the civil society and government departments to protect and recover missing children, besides providing psycho-social counselling to affected children and their families. During the meeting, the President highlighted the need for further improving the implementation of ZARRA Act by identifying gaps and shortcomings in its implementation at the provincial and district levels.
He said that after taking input and advice from civil society and NGOs, corrective measures should be taken to bring about improvements. Dr. Arif Alvi said that ZARRA’s coverage should be extended to the entire country by allocating adequate resources and creating awareness among the people. He also called for ensuring better management of alerts and complaints about missing children on 1099 helpline, PM Citizen Portal and ZARRA app by ensuring 24/7 service to the complainants.
Meanwhile, the President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday stressed giving opportunity to all political parties to run the upcoming general elections. “Democracy becomes meaningless if people are not able to elect leaders of their choice”, he said. The president expressed these views while talking to the former federal minister and Senator, Muhammad Ali Durrani, who called on him here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.
President Alvi said the upcoming general elections should be free, fair, transparent and inclusive. He emphasised that all political parties and their leadership should be given equal opportunities to participate in the election process to strengthen democracy in the country. The president was of the view that there was a dire need for political, institutional and stakeholder unity in the country to battle the difficulties on all possible fronts, including that of economy.
“Bitterness must end and give way to cooperation and forgiveness”, he said. He stated that difficult decisions needed backing of the people and their participative ownership. He said the forthcoming general elections provided a good opportunity to create the vibrancy needed to rebuild our country. The president also appreciated the statements given across the spectrum by all political leaders that there should be a level playing field as only this single issue of inclusivity was the essence of democracy.