PESHAWAR, Sept 28: Juvenile cases are not dealt properly because the police is unaware about the role of the probation and reclamation department and the judiciary does not seem to care much about its existence while dealing with cases of juvenile offenders, social workers complain.

Most of the officials of different police stations, when contacted by Dawn, expressed their unfamiliarity about the role of a probation officer while some SHOs were not even aware about who the probation officer was in their respective districts.

Similarly, courts all over the province seldom, if at all, ask probation officers to submit Social Investigation Reports (SIRs) about under-trial juvenile offenders.

“Till date, we have not submitted even a single SIR to any of the court in the province,” an official of the probation and reclamation department maintained.

Under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, the officer in-charge of a police station has to perform two tasks immediately after arresting a juvenile offender. Section 10 of the ordinance binds the officer to inform the child’s guardian about the whereabouts of the child besides informing him of the time, date and name of the juvenile court before which the child will be produced.

The officer shall also inform the probation officer concerned, enabling him to obtain relevant information about the child and other material evidence which may be of help to the juvenile court for making an inquiry in this regard.

An SHO of a police station, when contacted by this correspondent, not only conceded that he did not know even the identity of the probation officer in his area while he was not even aware about his role.

The SHO even expressed his unfamiliarity about the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, adding that he could only vaguely recall the law.

The law stipulates the probation officer to assist the juvenile court by providing a report on the child’s character, education, social and moral background.

Presently, the role of a probation officer only started when the court decided to release an offender on probation.

None of the probation officers prepared a report on their own while none of the juvenile courts asked them to prepare such a report after promulgation of the JJSO in 2000.

“There is a lack of coordination between the probation department and the police because of which the police. Trial courts are unaware about the juvenile offender’s social and moral background,” the deputy national coordinator of Society for Protection of Rights of Child Arshad Mahmood said.

Stressing the need for sensitizing the police about the JJSO, he blamed the police and the judiciary for undermining the role of probation officers, saying that the situation was the same all over the country as courts rarely asked for social investigation report in juvenile cases.