PESHAWAR, July 3: The Juvenile Justice System Ordinance has not been enforced in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas because necessary changes have not been made to the law by the federal government before its extension to the region last year.

Lawyers say that the law is useless in its present form in Fata as its various provisions are not applicable to the tribal areas, including the role of the Peshawar High Court, probation officers and police.

The ordinance was promulgated on July 1, 2000, and a notification was issued in November 2004 for extending it to Fata.

“The federal government only fulfilled a formality and did not take into account those provisions of the law which could not be applied to Fata,” said chairman of the Voice of Prisoners, Noor Alam Khan.

He pointed out that under Section 4(1) of the ordinance the provincial government should in consultation with the chief justice of the high court concerned establish one or more juvenile courts for an area within its jurisdiction. Neither the jurisdiction of the high court nor the provincial government was applicable to Fata, he said.

He said Section 4(2) of the ordinance also could not be enforced in fata as under it the high court might confer powers of juvenile court on the court of a sessions judge or judicial magistrate.

Deputy national coordinator of the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, Arshad Mahmood, said: “The JJSO provides that soon after arresting a child the officer in charge of a police station should inform his or her guardians and the probation officer concerned. As there is no police station and probation department in Fata, it was necessary for the government to amend this provision.”

Under the law, juvenile offenders should not be kept with adult prisoners in lock-ups and they should be kept in borstal institutions. There are no borstal institutions and juveniles arrested in Fata are kept in lock-ups with adult persons.

Mr Mahmood pointed out that under Section 13(1) an appeal against an order of a juvenile court could be filed in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code. He added that the under the CrPC an appeal had to be filed before the high court, whereas under the Frontier Crimes Regulations the appellate forum was the FCR commissioner.

On May 31, a Peshawar High Court bench dismissed a petition of a juvenile offender on the ground that the PHC had no jurisdiction in Fata.