ISLAMABAD: Child rights activists on Saturday demanded the federal and provincial governments to allocate more resources to improve child rights in the country.

The activists were speaking at an onlinesession titled `Post-Budget Session to Analyse the Resources Allocated for the Protection and Promotion of Child Rights` organised by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc).

Senator Mohammad Ali Saif said Pakistan had around 87.9 million children, making them approximately 47pc of the total population.

`Pakistan`s present as well as future depends on the survival, protection and promotion [of child] rights, and development of its children, who constitute the majority of our population. Our children are not our future. They are our present here and now,` he said.

Sparc Executive Director Sajjad Ahmed Cheema recalled that in Prime Minister Imran Khan`s first address as prime minis-ter, he mentioned the dire state of children`s health in Pakistan.

`Despite such big commitment, we see that there is still no improvement in child health. In the budget, there is no special allocation for child health and nutrition, he said.

Child rights expert Khalil Ahmed highlighted that Pakistan has not made much progress in its commitment to provide free and quality education to every child according to Article 25-A of the Constitution.

He said that according to official statistics, Pakistan has 22.8m out-of-school children between the ages of five and 16, which is the second highest in the world.

He said allocating teachers` salaries does not equate to working on education,and an adequate budget should be allotted to convert primary schools to middle and secondary schools in order to reduce the number of children who are out of school.

Activist Iqbal Dheto said that the issue of child labour has moved on from just being an economic issue but is now a protection issue as well.

`Out of 12m children engaged in the labour force, many are moving towards hazardous forms in order to make their ends meet. This includes trafficking for commercial and sexual exploitation,` he said.

He also expressed great concern at the alarming number of cases of abuse of child domestic workers that have surfaced and called for a complete ban on hiring children for domestic work.