Kashana is no ordinary place in Lahore’s Township. It is a welcoming building with a sense of atmosphere — as I walk in through the half-opened grilled doorway, stuffed toy animals hanging from a tree invite me in. In the front is a grassless courtyard shaded by trees with a badminton net in a corner, which suggests to me that the resident girls possess a sporty spirit. There’s something cheerful in the air, even though most of the girls are at school.

Inside, the huge bedrooms don’t look lived in. The beds are immaculately made with identical bed sheets and their belongings tucked away either in backpacks or cupboards. It’s too orderly to be real. I suspect that a control-freak superintendent makes the inmates tidy their rooms, teaching them how to keep their house clean when they get married and live in susraal.

Standing there, I ask myself if this peaceful calm of Kashana, home to 47 destitute girls, is for real or is it a cheap façade behind which a shelter for the destitute has been left to rot?

Kashana is a shelter home for the destitute, orphaned and needy girls, aged between 6 and 18, established by the Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal Department in 1974. A total of three such institutions have been set up in Punjab — in Rawalpindi, Sargodha and Lahore — where only the “medically fit” girls are eligible for admission. After attaining the age of 18, their stay at the centre may be extended if their circumstances are exceptional.

In the past few months, former superintendent of Kashana, Afshan Latif, has been accusing powerful ministers of the Punjab government of “misconduct” at the facility. “All forms of inappropriate or sexually exploitative behaviour was taking place here,” she tells me during a meeting at the superintendent’s house located on the Kashana compound. She continues to occupy the residence despite being suspended from service. “I was told by the high-ups to feed meat to the young residents to enhance their growth,” she says.

Latif’s narration sounds a little rehearsed, as she talks about Iqra Kainat Ilyas, a girl who had grown up in welfare homes, including Kashana, and who died in early February. “Kainat was my prime witness,” she says. “By killing her, they have removed evidence I might need to prove my case.”

After “knocking every door for justice,” Latif turned to social media to ‘fight’ her case. She is prolific in sharing updates through her YouTube videos and images of documents on WhatsApp. In one video she is urging the authorities to make Kainat’s autopsy report public. In an open letter to the chief justice of Pakistan, she is ‘explaining’ the causes of Kainat’s death, the circumstances that led to her marriage, her disappearance from her in-laws’ house, her admittance to the Services Hospital, and two months later the ‘discovery’ of her body in the Edhi Centre. In yet another video, she is ‘disclosing’ the findings of the autopsy report — that Kainat died because of “starvation”.

On February 27, Latif staged a sit-in at the Charing Cross to demand an impartial inquiry into Kainat’s death. She has also written a letter to the CCPO requesting the same.

Kainat’s death is presented as a mystery. Latif presents it with many twists and turns. She calls into question the role of a number of government officials and Social Welfare Department’s ‘inherent weaknesses.’

Latif took charge as the superintendent of Kashana in April 2019. She filed a complaint against the then director general of Kashana, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz, in July 2019, accusing her of pressuring her to marry underage girls to some high-ranking officials. A request for Redressal of Grievances was sent to the Additional Secretary (SP&WD) at Chief Minister’s Office by Ambreen Raza, the former Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal secretary, on July 27, 2019.

It started after Latif took charge as the superintendent of Kashana in April 2019. She filed a complaint against the then director general of Kashana, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz, in July 2019, accusing her of pressuring her to marry underage girls to some high-ranking officials. A request for Redressal of Grievances was sent to the CM’s office.

On the basis of this complaint, Chief Minister’s Inspection Team (CMIT) launched an inquiry into the case. Its report, submitted on October 15, 2019, states, “Her changing stance about her complaint made against the ex-DG [Afshan Kiran Imtiaz] at this stage and her offensive behaviour earlier extended to the Member of General V, CMIT, leads us to believe that her averments cannot be held reliable.”

Afshan Latif is not satisfied with the findings. “The main accused Ajmal Cheema, a former Punjab minister, has been given a “clean chit,” she says.

“We cannot decide if Afshan Latif’s allegations are correct or not,” human rights activist Hina Jilani tells me. “My concern is that her allegations about the protection of children are serious enough for the government to take action.”

In my meeting with Zahid Saleem Gondol, the Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal secretary, at his Model Town office, he dismisses Latif’s allegations of misconduct. He says she has “defamed” the institution, and is taking “undue advantage of being a woman.”

All in all, the accusations and counter accusations mentioned in the CMIT report come across as petty. It indicates that Afshan Latif filed a complaint against Afshan Kiran Imtiaz following difference between the two officials developed over the appointment of one Saima as a warden.

More importantly, the CMIT report, a copy of which is available with TNS, brings forth startling institutional inefficiencies. Enlisting the shortcomings of Kashana, the report says, “It appears that the Department of Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal, Punjab, has not issued proper SOPs regarding functioning of Kashana.”

It also questions the induction process for “inmates,” and regrets that a proper and periodical inspection regime to ensure adequate checks and balances is missing, and that no system is in place to follow up and monitor the education and health of the residents — “copies of students enrolled in different schools are not being properly checked. Further, no IT, technical or vocational training is being imparted to the inmates.”

The meals are also a cause of concern: “there is a hotchpotch system.”

The document discloses that “There was no separate register for inventory of donations received from philanthropists… The superintendent could not produce any cash books, vouchers, ledgers or bills’ register, which means that the expenditure incurred from government budget and donations are not being properly accounted for”.

Since the advisory committee of Kashana has not been notified for more than two years, the superintendent was unable to provide the minutes of the advisory committee meetings when asked by the CMIT. “The absence of SOPs, lack of audit regime and denotification of advisory committee show that Kashana has a dilly-dally administration setup running on the whims of the in-charge,” the report adds.

Since the submission of the report in October last year, the Directorate General of Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal has issued new SOPs to run the day-to-day affairs of Kashana. They are detailed and thorough.

“The Social Welfare Department needs good leadership. Secretaries must be committed. But they keep changing, which leads to lack of motivation among the staff,” says Fauzia Viqar, a former chairperson of the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW). “To prevent anything inappropriate from happening, we need strict monitoring and SOPs, and access to media.”

The Afshan Latif case is illustrative. “It has exposed the lack of implementation of child protection laws in our country. A credible investigation must be held in this case,” says Jilani.

On behalf of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Jilani has filed a petition concerning the secrecy surrounding the investigations in the case and also to address the shoddy workings of the shelter homes. The next hearing is expected on March 9.