Rawalpindi:
With divorce rates climbing rawalpindi, the number of alienated children who meet their separate parents and relatives has risen sharply, creating pressure on the children’s meeting facility on the legal complex.
Where once such meetings took place two to three times a week, they are now held daily. Each family judge sets out specific “meeting days” for parents dealing with divorce case.
The Family Meeting Center in responsibility said that between 38 and 70 families now use the facility every day. Some meet once a month, others twice, with sessions that last 40 minutes to an hour. Up to 10 families can meet at the same time.
However, the increase in demand has exposed serious deficiencies. The waiting area outside the hall lacks proper facilities and offers only cement benches that become unbearable heat in the summer and icy cold in winter. The tin-and-fiber roof exacerbates the heat. Visitors face further difficulties as there is no drinking water available, so they are forced to use nearby court cooler, which often runs dry at noon, despite the fact that meetings continue from 1 p.m. 9 to 16.
Space restrictions mean that grandparents and other relatives often rotate turns inside the hall, with only 10 to 15 minutes each.
Registration also poses problems that influential visitors allegedly manage to have their names listed in front of others. Despite these difficulties, parents and relatives bring gifts – such as toys, bikes, clothes, juices and fast food – to double children’s happiness. Many children expressed joy in receiving goodies and spending time with their fathers.
Still, behind the smiles, the frustration simmer. Divorce and relatives are unhappy with the lack of facilities. A visitor, Firdous Begum, urged the authorities to build a spacious, shady and well -ventilated wait, where women could sit with privacy together with reliable drinking water and a larger meeting center to accommodate more families at once.
Some parents reflected on their regret. A father, Faisal Khurshid, admitted, “meeting my children is very difficult. We parted over less disputes. I even marry again, but still have not found peace. I say everyone goes to the right of divorce 1 be patient with each other. Do not end up undoing like us.”
