PESHAWAR, July 14: The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc) has expressed concern over non-availability of legal aid to juvenile offenders in different districts of the province and has asked the government to notify panel of lawyers for them in those districts.

The organisation stated that despite the fact that Section-3 of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance stressed on free legal aid at state expenses, most of the juveniles continued to languish in various prisons of the NWFP without having access to legal aid.

In a press release issued here on Monday, the provincial protection officer of Sparc, Ijaz Mohammad Khan, stated that the Peshawar High Court’s registrar had already sent a letter on Aug 3, 2004 to all district and sessions judges for providing free legal aid at state expenses.

He stated that such panels had been notified in Peshawar, Mardan, Dera Ismail Khan, Swabi, Charsadda, Bannu, Upper Dir and Nowshera districts. However, he added, these panels had contributed very little for minimising the suffering of juveniles.

Mr Khan stated that providing free legal aid to the juveniles was the major objective of the Sparc. He informed that since January this year, they had provided free legal aid to 89 juveniles in the province. He added that legal aid was provided to 37 juveniles in Peshawar out of which 29 were released.

Moreover, he said, the lawyers of the Child Rights Committees from Swabi, Mardan, Swat, Bunner, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu and Chitral provided legal aid to 52 juvenile prisoners.

The Sparc, he said, had been providing legal aid to juvenile prisoners since October 2005 and so far it had helped in release of 550 juvenile prisoners.

He requested that panel of lawyers should be notified in the concerned districts. He requested the government, specially the police, prison departments and general public to contact the Sparc offices in Peshawar in case a child could not afford to hire the services of a legal practitioner, not only in Peshawar but all major cities of the NWFP.