PESHAWAR, Oct 25: A notification issued by the provincial government offering some benefits to juvenile offenders has become useless as the concerned authorities have not been following it.

Three months back, the law department had issued the notification through which the advocate-general and public prosecutors had been asked to withdraw from prosecution of juvenile offenders if they fulfilled certain conditions.

The notification called for withdrawal of prosecution of those juvenile prisoners who are: below 18, in jails for over 18 months, and, are yet to see court proceedings against them started.

It stated that these provisions would not be applicable to those juvenile prisoners who were involved in serious offences like murder, terrorist activities and anti-state activity.

The department directed the advocate-general and public prosecutors to withdraw from prosecution of offenders who fulfilled the said conditions.

A lawyer dealing with the cases of juvenile offenders told Dawn that in its present shape the notification was useless as some of its provisions were misinterpreted by the concerned officers. During the last three months, he added, none of the juvenile prisoners had benefited from the notification.

He claimed that normally it was very hard for a juvenile offender to fulfil all the three conditions. “Sometime the authorities misinterpret the provision regarding the age of a juvenile,” he said, adding “in the light of judgments of the superior courts the age of an offender shall be considered at the time of occurrence, but the officials normally consider his/her present age.”

Noor Alam, an advocate who heads Voice of Prisoners, an organisation working for the rights of prisoners, suggested that if the department had been facing hindrance in acting on the said notification, then the juvenile offenders should be allowed bail or released on parole.

Juvenile courts, he said, should also be notified to follow the provisions of Juvenile Justice System Ordinance.