Rawalpindi:
With climbing divorce rates in Rawalpindi, the number of separate children meeting their separate parents and parents has increased sharply, creating pressure on the installation of children’s meeting in the legal complex.
Once such meetings have taken place two to three times a week, they are now held daily. Each family judge puts aside specific “meeting days” for parents engaged in a divorce procedure.
The family meeting center in charge said that between 38 and 70 families now use the establishment every day. Some meet once a month, others twice, with sessions from 40 minutes to an hour. Up to 10 families can meet at the same time.
However, the sharp increase in demand has revealed serious gaps. The waiting area outside the room does not have appropriate installations, offering only cement benches that become unbearably hot in summer and freezing cold in winter. The tin and fiber roof worsens heat. Visitors are faced with additional difficulties because no drinking water is available, so they are forced to use nearby courtyards, who are often dry at noon, despite meetings continuing from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Space constraints mean that grandparents and other parents often turn turns inside the room, with only 10 to 15 minutes each.
Recording also poses problems, as influential visitors would have managed to ensure that their names are listed before the others. Despite these difficulties, parents and relatives bring gifts – such as toys, bikes, clothes, juices and fast food – to double the happiness of children. Many children have expressed their joy at receiving treats and spending time with their fathers.
However, behind the smiles, the frustration simmer. Divorced and relatives vocate the dissatisfaction with the lack of installations. A visitor, Firdous Begum, urged the authorities to build a spacious, shaded and well -ventilated waiting hall where women could sit with intimacy, as well as a reliable drinking water and a larger meeting center to accommodate more families at the same time.
Some parents thought about their regrets. A father, Faisal Khurshid, admitted: “Meeting my children is very difficult. We have divorced minor disputes. I even remarried but I have still not found peace. I say to everyone who goes to court for divorce 1 to be patient with each other. Do not end up regretting like us.”
