Punjab govt launches website, helpline to reunite mising children

LAHORE (Staff Report) - Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) on Thursday launched a web portal for finding parents or guardians of the missing children.

"The PITB established the portal in collaboration with the Child Protection & Welfare Bureau (CPWB) and the Punjab Police", Dr Umar Saif, Chairman PITB said while addressing a meeting at Arfa Software Technology Park.

He said that on the instructions of Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, a website and helpline has been developed to facilitate citizens, police, agencies and relevant organisations to find out missing children and reunite them with their families.

We have put up a website with pics of children recovered by the Govt. Please help us unite them with their families https://t.co/1Fx1EqjqGf

— Umar Saif (@umarsaif) August 11, 2016

He said necessary documents, pictures and other details of children, that had gone missing, and now recovered by Edhi, CPWB, Punjab Police and other departments concerned, are being uploaded to http://missing.punjab.gov.pk/children.

"Access to the portal has been provided to all relevant departments so that it could be updated on time, and parents and guardians could search their children through the website easily," he added.

"A helpline-1121 have also been set up", Saif maintained.

According to a report submitted to Supreme Court by Punjab police last month, 766 children were kidnapped in Punjab in the past seven months, of whom 715 have been found.

Police are working on complaints related to the sale of organs of kidnapped children in Gujrat and surrounding areas, the report stated.