A Critical Evaluation of the Balochistan Prevention of Beggary Act 2025: Parallels and Disparities with Balochistan Child Protection Act 2016

Abstract

This paper provides a critical socio-legal analysis of child begging in Balochistan, which remains an issue mainly because of poverty, social and economic disadvantages, and the lack of proper legal protection for children. The paper mainly examines the relationship between the Balochistan Prevention of Beggary Act 2026(BPBA) and the Balochistan Child Protection Act 2016 (BCPA). The main question is whether these two laws work together or create a conflict. The BPBA mainly focuses on controlling and penalizing begging while the BCPA follows welfare based approach that aims to protect and rehabilitate vulnerable children. The paper also examines the Pakistan’s international obligations under the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which requires children involved in begging to be treated as children in need of protection rather than as criminals. Through a comparison of the two laws this research identifies two major problems. First, the BPBA 2025 gives children only limited protection. Section 5(9) sends a child found begging to a juvenile court but police can take the child into custody first under section 4 and the other penal provisions of the Act (section 6, 9, 11 and 14) have no express safeguard for children. Second, the BPBA never refers a child to the child protection system under BCPA. It does not mention a Child Protection Officer or a District Child Protection Unit, so the child is dealt with by the juvenile justice system instead of receiving protection and support. To address these problems, this paper recommends specific changes to the law to create better coordination between the two laws, improve cooperation between the relevant authorities and ensure that Pakistan’s laws are consistent with the international child rights standards.