PESHAWAR, May 20: Princess Salima Aga Khan will provide Rs60 million for setting up an SOS village in Peshawar for which land has already been purchased by the NWFP government.

This was stated by chief secretary of the NWFP chief secretary Shakeel Durrani while presiding over a meeting on the juvenile justice system here on Tuesday.

The SOS village, he said, would have an orphanage and a state-of-the-art children’s school, adding that it would be in addition to the existing village in Dhudial, Mansehra.

He said that the provincial government had already purchased a 50-kanal piece of land on the Ring Road near Hayatabad, Peshawar.

Mr Durrani said that two more SOS villages — one in Malakand division and one in the southern part of the province — would be set up.

These underprivileged children, he said, were not represented by any lobby, adding that the government was making efforts to improve their lot.

Taking note of the closure of certain Islamic relief organisations, which had resulted in the closure of orphanages for Afghan refugee children, the chief secretary directed the home secretary to approach the Afghan Refugee Commissionerate to look after the orphaned Afghan children.

The IGP, Prisons, NWFP, Col Abdur Rauf, while briefing the chief secretary about steps taken for education and rehabilitation of juvenile prisoners, said that for the first time, some very radical measures had been taken for the welfare of the juvenile prisoners.

He said that the government planned to build borstels in Peshawar and Bannu for the detained children while conditions in the existing prisons had already been improved, which included provision of education and health facilities.

The meeting discussed the implementation of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance-2000, the provision of lawyers to juvenile prisoners on state expenses, release of juvenile prisoners on parole, setting up of juvenile courts at district level and appointment of probation officers.

The chief secretary directed secretary law to approach the finance department for budgetary allocation to provide legal assistance to juvenile offenders.