Sir: It will soon be 25 years since the worldwide adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Pakistan became a signatory on December 12, 1990. The Convention is quite eloquent with regard to the implementation of child rights on the basis of equality and to ensure that they survive, grow, participate in society and fulfil their potential. In Pakistan the Convention is only enforceable if it is adopted through domestic legislation. Unfortunately Pakistan has not introduced any such legislation and the Convention cannot be invoked in any domestic court of law. What we do have is a host of non-unified federal and provincial regulations on issues of family law and child welfare. While the National Commission for Child Welfare and Development oversees the application of the Convention in Pakistan and the country has enacted laws to limit child labour and indentured servitude, almost 11 million children between the age of four and 14 still work illegally under unhealthy conditions. The Constitution of Pakistan at least theoretically provides free and compulsory education for children aged between five and sixteen but the country still has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world. Polio, a potentially fatal infectious disease that strikes children mainly under the age of five, can cause irreversible paralysis and sometimes even death. Pakistan was able to control the crippling disease due to stringent and well organised polio drives in the past. Sadly, it has recently been reported that in Pakistan the virus’ uptake is extreme due to the targeting of polio health workers by the Taliban. More than 200 children have been reported with the illness and hundreds of thousands of children remain unvaccinated and vulnerable to contracting polio. The point to understand is that with a plethora of laws at our disposal, after so many years we still find it challenging to provide for and facilitate the most defenceless amongst us. With poverty that forces children to pick up tools rather than books and deadly diseases rampant around them, all laws that are meant for the protection and transformation of children into healthy, productive adults eventually become dormant and hence useless. MOBEEN SHAH Via Email