PESHAWAR, Sept 28: The provincial prison department has approved construction of a borstal institution in Haripur at a cost of Rs12.192 million. This was stated by AIG (Prisons) Latif Arshad at a meeting held here on Thursday to discuss reform measures to be taken for effective implementation of Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) 2000 through Access to Justice Program (AJP).

The meeting was presided over by provincial programme manager Mohammad Tariq Suhail. Officials concerned attended the meeting.

The AIG said that the PDWP had approved the project but due to non-allocation of funds work could not be started.

The programme manager said that additional chief secretary had retained this project and directed the home and prisons departments to review priorities. He asked the representative of the prison department to expedite the process and release funds for this project.

About providing free legal aid to juvenile offenders, he said that it was the responsibility of the department concerned to secure sufficient funds from the finance department for meeting the legal obligation provided in the relevant law. He asked the department to work out expenditure on this account and take up the proposal with the finance department.

He asked the probation officer to provide a list of the probation officers to be placed at the information kiosks now functioning in all the district courts. He further said he would approach the Peshawar High Court to provide one room for the probation officers in each judicial complex in the district headquarters.

The representative of the reclamation and probation department informed that there were 14 probation officers for 24 districts with no female officer. He said the law provided for probation officer but due to non-availability of funds, this department was unable to function according to the requirements.—APP