Secretary Housing South Punjab Javed Akhtar Mehmood said on Tuesday that main cause of human trafficking was poverty and steps should be taken to address root cause of socio-economic issues including bonded labour, child labour, human trafficking and some others.
He said this while addressing an awareness seminar organized by Sustainable Social Development Organizations (SSDO) here at local hotel.
The title of the seminar was “War against Human Trafficking and Bounded Labor in Pakistan and South Punjab”. This dialogue was attended by the officers of the civil administration, police, prosecution, officer of labour and social welfare department of 11 district of South Punjab.
The objective of this session was to create awareness about the impact of this issue on Pakistan. In the session, the relevant laws, procedures were discussed and the role of different departments was identified. Javed Akhtar Mahmood said “ poor people become the fuel of human trafficking due to their dreams for a better future”.
He said that legislation must be enacted to stop human trafficking. Apart from this, some other measures to alleviate poverty and control on rising population. Javed stressed practical steps annihilate bounded labor and child labor.
Every citizen should play role for this purpose. Vice Chancellor Bahauddin Zakaria University Professor Dr. Mansoor Akbar Kundi said that human trafficking in Pakistan started in 2009 and termed sex, labor and money were the three main reasons.