Islamabad: The First Lady of Pakistan, Bibi Asifa Bhutto Zardari, has issued a compelling statement emphasizing the urgent need for comprehensive measures to protect children from violence, abuse, and exploitation both offline and online. Her call to action highlights the necessity for a collective national effort to ensure child safety and justice.

According to Press Information Department, Ms. Zardari stressed that children across the world, including in Pakistan, face a multitude of threats ranging from physical violence to online exploitation. She underscored that child protection should not be reactive but preventive, involving informed parents, safe educational environments, and robust social services. The First Lady also called for responsible digital platforms and community vigilance to prevent predators from targeting children.

Ms. Zardari’s statement further emphasized that any crime against a child must be met with decisive action, ensuring that neither silence nor stigma shields the perpetrator. She advocated for a child-protection system where prevention, reporting, investigation, rehabilitation, and justice are seamlessly integrated. The First Lady urged listening to children’s voices as essential in shaping policies affecting their lives, framing the protection of childhood as a matter of rights and justice rather than charity.

In her appeal, she called upon various sectors of society, including government bodies, law enforcement, educational institutions, civil society, and families, to adopt child protection as a shared national responsibility. She concluded by asserting that the most significant investment in Pakistan’s future is through safeguarding the well-being of its children.