In 2001, the Government of Pakistan ratified ILO Convention 182 and requested technical assistance from the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) to assist the Government in fulfilling its international commitments under the Convention. The first support to Pakistan was a preparatory phase to generate sufficient information to initiate the development of a comprehensive National Time-bound Programme (TBP) to take immediate measures designed to eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL) within ten to fifteen years and to provide the basis for the design of the first interventions in support of the National time-bound Programme (TBP) on the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Pakistan. In this backdrop, the Project of Support (PoS) to the national time-bound programme on worst forms of child labour was initiated in Pakistan in October 2003 with the financial assistance of the US
Department of Labor (US $ 4 million).