Playing to the Gallery

On May 30, 2017, I appeared before the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in a public interest litigation (HRC 63 of 2017) which has been initiated by the CJ himself after the child domestic servant Tayyaba torture case came into limelight.

The matter has been pending for a few months now and many lawyers and civil society activists have appeared in the hearings. Not much has been accomplished so far.

I have filed an application in the Supreme Court making the following requests:

A/        all governments, whether federal or provincial, should be ordered to amend all the relevant laws to prohibit employment of all children, without exceptions, under the age of 16 years; and to strictly enforce article 25-A of the Constitution. This one step alone can revolutionize Pakistan as all children under-16 will not be working but instead will be acquiring education.

B/        federal and provincial governments should be ordered to issue notifications under their respective Employment of Children laws to cover “Child Domestic Work” in their schedules.

C/        federal and provincial governments should be ordered to assist poor families which depend on their children to sustain themselves.

D/        all governments, whether federal, provincial or local, should be ordered to instruct their employees not to employ under-16 children in their households.

E/         judiciary at all levels should be instructed not to employ under-16 children in their households.

As I have stated that not much progress is being made so far in the hearings and when I noticed that the Court was giving another adjournment, I requested the Court that at least the Chief Justice could order all the Judges under him and all the Chief Justices to order all the Judges under them, including the district court judges, not to employ under-16 children in their household.

I was not asking for a judicial order but an administrative direction just like Judges are instructed not to use mobile phones or smoke in the court room.

The Chief Justice reacted to this by saying that I was playing to the gallery. This was unfair as I was making the request in all earnestness and the “gallery” was the last thing on my mind.

I have been involved in this struggle to ban child labor for more than 25 years and I have seen all the bureaucracy and the rulers smartly wriggle out when cornered and then nothing happens again for years.

The Chief Justice during the hearing had repeatedly remarked about the separateness of the three branches of government and that judiciary cannot interfere in the functioning of the executive and the legislature and cannot instruct them to make particular laws and modify them on a certain pattern. I differ with this but it is a separate issue.

However, in view of the fact that the Chief Justice expressed his inability to instruct the government and the legislature to ban child labor I had made a simple request to at least get it banned in the households of the judges. The Chief Justice declined to even do this.