PESHAWAR, Oct 23: The NWFP government has upgraded the office of Reclamation and Probation to the status of a directorate to be supervised by a director.

The proposal regarding the upgradation of the office had been under consideration for the last couple of months due to the importance attached to it, especially after the promulgation of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, in which important duties have been assigned to probation officers.

Previously, the office of the Reclamation and Probation worked under the prison department.

The government had issued a notification a few days ago whereby it was ordered that the office of Reclamation and Probation “has been upgraded to a directorate” and “from now on it would be attached with the NWFP home department”.

After the issuance of the notification, the NWFP governor has ordered placing of the directorate in Schedule I of the NWFP Rules of Business, 1983, as an attached directorate of the home department.

It is learnt that a summary has been moved for the appointment of deputy director of the office, Mr Moalam Jan, as its director.

Demands have been made over the last couple of years by child rights groups that attention should be paid to the office of reclamation and probation as it has been facing multiple problems.

At present, about 13 probation officers have been supervising 2100 probationers in the province, including about 160 juvenile offenders.

In some districts, there is no probation officer and those working in the adjoining districts need to look after their affairs.

An official of the department said they had no probation officer in some of the districts, including Lower Dir, Karak, Buner, Malakand, Chitral, Hangu, Shangla and Tank.

Moreover, there is not a single female probation officer in the province due to which the office has been facing problems in dealing with cases of female offenders. Under the rules, no female offender can be given in the supervision of male probation officer.

Despite repeated demands by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) the provincial government has yet to increase the number of probation officers and appoint female officers.

An official said that with the upgradation of the office, it was expected that the number of probation officers would be increased as a summary had already been moved in that regard in which appointment of four female officers had also been proposed.

Under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, police or any other agency have to inform the probation officer concerned soon after the arrest of a juvenile offender. However, this provision has been flouted by the law enforcing agencies ever since the ordinance was promulgated in 2000.