22 October 2004	Friday	07 Ramazan 1425

PESHAWAR, Oct 21: NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has ordered the extension of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, to the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata).

The ordinance was extended by the governor with the approval of the president under Article 247(3) of the constitution.

Under the constitution, no act of the national or the provincial assembly, or an ordinance promulgated by the president or the governor is applicable to Pata unless a notification is issued in that regard.

A notification in this regard was issued on Oct 20 by NWFP Home Secretary Abdul Kareem Qasuria.

The law has been extended to Pata after hectic campaigning by civil society groups. They have also demanded the extension of the law to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The ordinance was promulgated by President Gen Pervez Musharraf on July 1, 2000, and was applicable to the whole of the country except the tribal areas.

According to the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, about 70 children have been detained in the province under the Frontier Crimes Regulation, 1901. Juvenile offenders in the rest of the country have been tried under the JJSO by juvenile courts but in the tribal areas they were tried like adults.

Under the ordinance, death penalty cannot be awarded to a juvenile offender, but in different cases in the tribal areas they were sentenced to death.

An appeal of two boys sentenced to death by a qazi court in 2002 is pending before the Federal Shariat Court.

Legal experts said that in various cases confusion even prevailed in the high court about the law. They said that in one of the case last year the Peshawar High Court had set aside the conviction of a boy by a qazi court and remanded the case back with the observation that it should be tried under the JJSO. A writ petition was filed against that order on the ground that the ordinance had not been extended to PATA, they said. The high court had stayed the proceedings in the case till the disposal of the appeal pending before the Supreme Court, they said.

Sparc Deputy National Coordinator Arshad Mahmood welcomed the extension of the ordinance to Pata. According to a press release, he said In a press release, he said the NWFP Juvenile Justice System Rules, 2002, should also be extended to the areas immediately.

He said the Peshawar High Court might also notify juvenile courts in Pata and judges should be trained on the law.

He said probation officers should be appointed in all the Pata districts. He said it was necessary to establish a panel of lawyers for extending free legal assistance to the children accused or victims of crimes.

He stated Sparc and the Juvenile Justice Network would continue their struggle for the extension of the ordinance to Fata.