03 May 2004	Monday	12 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

PESHAWAR, May 2: The local police and courts have been ignoring the role of probation officers in cases of juvenile offenders, according to legal experts.

It is learnt that in most of the cases the concerned police officers are not aware of the role of probation officers under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000.

"Most of the police officers are even not aware of the name of the probation officer of his area and normally do not inform the probation officer after arresting a juvenile offender," said an SHO of a local police station.

Under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, the officer in charge of a police station has to perform two tasks immediately after arresting a juvenile offender. Section 10 of the ordinance envisages that the officer shall inform the guardian of the child and inform him of the time, date and name of the juvenile court before which the child shall be produced.

The officer shall also inform the probation officer concerned to enable him to obtain such information about the child and other material circumstances which may be of assistance to the juvenile court for making inquiry.

Lawyers dealing with cases of juvenile offenders claimed that the Probation and Reclamation Department had very important role to play in different cases, but normally the police and judiciary had been overlooking that role.

Officials of different police stations, when contacted by Dawn, expressed ignorance about the role of a probation officer. Some of the SHOs were even not aware of the presence of a probation officer in their respective districts.

Similarly, the courts throughout the province have not been asking the probation officers to submit the Social Investigation Reports (SIR) of the under-trial juvenile offenders.

"Till date we have not submitted even a single SIR to any of the courts throughout the province," said an official of the probation and reclamation department. None of the police stations in the provincial capital has ever informed a probation officer about detention of a juvenile offender.

"I don't know who is the probation officer of my area and what is his role," an SHO of a police station said when asked about the role of a probation officer. The SHO even expressed ignorance about the JJSO, stating that he had heard about it but was not familiar with the law.

Moreover, under the law the probation officer shall assist the juvenile court by making a report on the child's character, education, social and moral background.

However, in the present circumstance the role of a probation officer only starts when the court decides to release an offender on probation. Neither the probation officer had prepared a report of a juvenile offender on their own nor any juvenile court had asked them to prepare it after promulgation of the JJSO in 2000.