One in seven GB children engaged in labour
Approximately 50,000 children in Gilgit-Baltistan are engaged in child labour, indicating a prevalence of 13.1 percent. This means that one in every seven children is involved in labour.
These numbers were compiled in the Gilgit-Baltistan Child Labour Survey 2018-19, which was launched on Wednesday, October 27. The survey, which was conducted in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), involved a sample size of 400,000 children aged between five and 17 years. A little over 7,000 households in rural and urban settlements in all ten districts of the region were surveyed.
The report provided that children from poorer houses are more likely to be engaged in labour. Moreover, average household incomes were higher where the children were not working, indicating that child labour in fact does not alleviate poverty for lower-income households. Working children were less likely to live with both parents and were more likely to have lost one or both parents.
About a quarter of the households surveyed had at least one child involved in labour, with the rate of child labour declining where household wealth and education of the household head were higher. The report highlighted that the prevalence of child labour in households in rural areas was 30 percent while in urban areas it was ten percent.
Furthermore, 30 percent of surveyed children are not enrolled in schools, while 14.8 percent were neither in schools nor working but are highly vulnerable to becoming engaged in labour. The report also provided that 0.2 percent of girls aged between ten and 13 years, and 7.4 percent of girls aged between 14 and 17 years were married.
Faisalabad man sets cousin ablaze for rejecting proposal
One Sabir Ali allegedly set his cousin on fire on Tuesday, October 26 after she refused to marry him.
According to the 32-year-old victim, she was living with her sister in Sialkot after developing differences with her husband Shahid Mehmood whom she married in 2011 and has one daughter with.
Two weeks ago, Ali contacted her and told her that her husband was filing for a divorce and asked her to visit him at his home in Chak 124-RB to collect the papers. However, when she went there, Sabir instead asked her to marry him which she refused.
The victim stated that Ali allegedly turned on a gas pipe while she was baking bread and ignited it, setting her on fire. Locals rushed to help her when they heard her scream and shifted her to Sangla Hill Civil Hospital. She was later moved to the burn ward of Faislabad’s Allied Hospital.
Sahianwala police have registered a case against the suspect under section 324 (attempted murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and are on the hunt.
The victim was rushed to Allied Hospital Faisalabad. After registering the case, the police started raids to arrest the suspect accused.
Man held nine months after rape complaint
Police arrested a man accused rape after his bail plea was turned down by the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday, nine months after a case was lodged against him.
The accused had reportedly raped a woman after luring her and rendering her unconscious early this year.
Although the incident occurred at Lahore’s International Market on February 2, a complaint under PPC section 376 (punishment for rape) was formally lodged on February 21 at the Faisal Town Police on February 21.
The rape survivor told police that the accused summoned her to Model Town Park to conduct a job interview. He then hailed a rickshaw and took her to International Market to meet with his superior before taking her to a room on the first floor, snatching away her phone and locking her there.
He later gave her a glass of water. The rape survivor claimed she became delirious after drinking the water, during which the accused sexually assaulted her.
The accused had initially applied for pre-arrest bail with a Lahore sessions court, however it was turned down. He then approached the LHC where Justice Tariq Saleem also turned down his bail plea.
