The Ministry of human Rights launched the "Zainab Alert” on the Pakistan Citizen’s Portal today. This is a commendable effort on the part of the federal government to unify and strengthen efforts to track and trace missing children and child abuse cases in Pakistan, following the recent enactment of the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act in March 2020. The Zainab Alert system will activate the state machinery at relevant regional and district levels for effective emergency response and recovery of missing children. Through integration with the Pakistan Citizen’s Portal, the alert mechanism will be instantly available to 2.9 million registered users.
The application / alert mechanism was launched at an event held at the Ministry of Human Rights today. Zainab Ansari’s father, Amin Ansari attended the event as the guest of honour and launched the application. The event was attended by Asad Umer, Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives.
The application / alert mechanism was developed by the Ministry of Human Rights in collaboration with the Prime Minister’s Performance Delivery Unit. The Zainab Alert utilises advanced technologies and packs in several key features such as AI Face Recognition, Geo tagging and mapping, and real time progress tracking and alerts in order to streamline and strengthen response and recovery alerts. It will also establish a national reporting dashboard and a public web portal to allow both authorities and citizens to track and trace the progress of cases as well as the prevalence of incidents and reporting in regions / districts across Pakistan.
The system will be monitored by the Ministry of Human Rights. The Director General of the newly constituted Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Agency (ZARRA) will supervise the mechanism and dashboard at the Ministry of Human Rights. The system institutes a robust mechanism that will alert the District Police Officers (DPOs) and the Regional Police Officers (RPOs) through their respective dashboards, as well as through SMS notifications due to the urgent nature of response required. Police officials after initial validation of alerts, shall mobilise immediately. Inspector Generals (IGs) will be responsible for following up in their provincial capacities, as well as the Chief Ministers and Provincial Home Secretaries.
Ultimately the mechanism and dashboard will be integrated with the Ministry of Human Rights’ 1099 helpline and application for reporting human rights abuses and violations in Pakistan. These are important measures that will be integral in terms of strengthening mechanisms to report, track and trace cases of human rights violations in Pakistan.
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