PESHAWAR, July 20: A female juvenile offender, allowed bail by the high court, has had to remain in prison for the last more than two months as she is not having guarantors to submit surety bonds on her behalf.

The girl, Ms Fatima, was arrested in a case under the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance 1979. She had refused to marry an old man, who was already married twice, and had left her residence.

The girl was allowed bail on May 2 by the Peshawar High Court, but she remains imprisoned at the Mardan district jail due to lack of sureties. The high court had directed that she be released after furnishing bail bonds of Rs1,00,000 with two sureties each.

The accused-applicant was charged by her brother, Mohiuddin, in an FIR registered on Oct 5, 2000, at police station A Division, Mardan, under section 11 and 16 of the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979.

The applicant had left her residence as she was unhappy with her engagement with a person , Gulab Khan.

The police charged her with eloping with the same person with whom she was not willing to marry. The co-accused, Gulab, has not been arrested to-date.

Her bail applications were earlier dismissed by the Mardan district and sessions judge and the judicial magistrate concerned.

Advocate Waqas Yousaf, running a free legal aid cell for destitute women, had appeared for the applicant and contended that she was victimized by her family members as well as the police.

The girl belonged to the Komela area of Kohistan district. Her family migrated to Mardan a few years back and her family members, including her mother and sisters, used to work as housemaids.

Finally, they arranged her marriage with Gulab.

The girl claimed that after leaving her residence she was serving as a housemaid with a family in Peshawar. She claimed that neither she eloped with Gulab nor she was abducted by him. Rather, she left her residence in protest against the engagement. The whereabouts of her family are also not known now.

At the time of occurrence, the applicant was 16. Under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO), 2000, every person below 18 years of age is considered a juvenile offender. However, the Zina Ordinance is in conflict with the JJSO as a female who is 16 or has attained puberty is considered an adult.