Zainab Alert Bill

Zainab Alert Bill, also called Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act 2019,^[1] is a Government of Pakistan law that defines the system of one window operations to notify the public and recover kidnapped children in Pakistan. The bill originated in Pakistan and defines its own comprehensive indigenous version of Amber Alert. The bill creates a new federal agency called ZARRA^[2] who shall be responsible to reduce child kidnapping, improve recovery and increase awareness against sexual abuse of children across all provinces of Pakistan. Zainab Alert Act provides ease of use to the missing child's parents/guardians to notify the Police. The Act also provides a process for the local police department to issue an emergency alert using emergency broadcasting system on mobile phones within a 20 km region where the child was last seen. A major key feature of the Act is to establish a national database of missing and recovered children applicable across Pakistan and makes the ZARRA agency accountable to submit quarterly reports to the National Assembly of Pakistan.