June 6, 2026
By Hafiz Ullah Storai Sherani
ISLAMABAD
More than five years after the passage of the landmark child protection law, the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act (ZARRA) 2020 remains unimplemented in its core provisions, including the non-functionality of the agency meant to issue rapid alerts for missing children. These facts came to light before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) during the hearing of a writ petition filed by Sanila Khurram against the Federation of Pakistan and others.
Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) took serious notice of the case, remarking that while the preamble of the Act clearly reflects its objectives, its enforcement has yet to be realized. The Act was enacted to protect children’s rights, including the right to life and protection from violence, abuse, neglect, abduction, and exploitation, in line with Pakistan’s international obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
The court has directed the Ministry of Human Rights to submit a comprehensive report addressing 11 specific points regarding the ZARRA Agency (established under Section 3) and its powers (under Section 5). The court questioned whether the agency has been established, what SOPs or rules exist for issuing alerts, the technical framework of the database, whether law enforcement agencies are sharing real-time information, and what disciplinary action has been taken against delinquent officials under Section 9. According to sources, rules under Section 18 have not yet been notified. The court also sought details on legal aid mechanisms for victims, the constitution of the ICT Child Protection Advisory Board, and the integration of the database with the ICT Police.
Judicial challenges and police challan status: Advocate Sahal Khan’s stance
Advocate Sahal Khan, counsel for the petitioner, provided exclusive information to Voicepk, shedding light on the real statistics of crimes against children in the federal capital and detailing the procedural shortcomings.
“There are two phases to this case,” he said. “In the first phase, the police have not yet submitted the challan, though a few things have been submitted to the court. Since this case started around August or September, the second issue is that 165 cases are currently pending in court without being heard. The court has not given specific remarks on this as it is a judicial matter. The third point is that the Zainab Alert institution is not functional; no significant work has been done, it isn’t active, nor does it provide the necessary information. Because this is a sensitive institution, especially one working for children, its non-functionality means the work it is supposed to do is not happening, which is why the court has sought information from them.”
Disclosing the breakdown of the data and case details submitted to the court regarding children, he revealed, “We filed the cases in court and also submitted information regarding the children. Out of the total cases, 48 challans are still with the police. A total of 266 children were missing, and there were approximately 200 cases of sexual abuse. Out of these, a total of 165 cases remain unresolved or unsettled and are pending in court.”
Advocate Sahal Khan highlighted the internal institutional framework and the discriminatory allocation of state funding.
“This institution operates under the Ministry of Human Rights, but according to our information, only two people have been employed there so far,” he said. “This is why we approached the court—that after such a major incident like Zainab’s occurred and an Act was subsequently made, the institution and the law remain non-functional and impractical. This is an institution and law for the public interest; otherwise, in this country, other laws and institutions are created and are immediately provided with funds and made functional. According to the lawyer, Section 15 of this Act states that any case related to a child must be resolved within three months, but here it takes years. The police do not submit challans. The reason is that while both the police and ZARA Alert receive information, there is no coordination between them. If a proper database is created and made accessible to the general public, many problems could be solved. One reason for its non-functionality is that it hides the failures of these institutions.”
Bureaucratic defense and resource scarcity
On the other hand, presenting his stance while speaking to Voicepk, Farooq Ahmed Khan, the Director of Zainab Alert said that the institution is functional but also acknowledged a severe constraint in human resources.
“It has been two months since I joined the institution. Before this hearing, I was not aware of anything of this sort; we also read it in the newspaper today. Aside from that, our institution is functional. Alerts are issued; alerts are sent to the police by our institution. Everyone has access to the app or application of this institution, and the rest is handled by the police. Approximately more than one thousand cases are uploaded to our system every month, and reports are also generated. However, it is true that we have a shortage of human resources, the summary for which is pending with the Finance Department. As soon as the resource issue is resolved, this institution will become fully functional.”
Contact was made with the Islamabad Police via their official telephone and WhatsApp, but no response was received by the time of filing this report.
‘Child protection is a duty’
Meanwhile, the debate continues on social media regarding the slow implementation of the law. Expressing deep concern over the situation, social activist Nasmia Zaidi wrote on her social media platform:
“A child protection law can look strong on paper. The real test is whether it works when a child goes missing. The court was told that key parts of the Zainab Alert law remain unimplemented years after passage. That raises a simple but serious question. If hundreds of missing child & abuse cases were registered while core safeguards remained inactive, then the problem is not a lack of laws. It is a lack of execution. This state must treat child protection as a duty, not a promise waiting for action.”