ISLAMABAD: Days after the directives of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) chief justice for the immediate release of children detained in Adiala jail, the human rights ministry has failed to end the incarceration of the under-trial juvenile prisoners “for lack of funds to submit surety bonds”, Dawn has learnt.

The nine minors aged 10 to 15, arrested for petty crimes, are still languishing in the barracks at Adiala as “the ministry has no money to pay their surety bonds”.

During the hearing on Monday, the high court had directed the government to make arrangements for immediate release of under-trial minors in the light of an inquiry report submitted by the National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR) on Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail.

“The federal government, in consultation with the government of Punjab, shall immediately take measures to accommodate the children identified in the inquiry report in an appropriate child protection centre and ensure their welfare,” the order by CJ Athar Minallah had read.

The Ministry of Human Rights spokesperson Fatima Batool said the delay in the release of the juvenile prisoners was due to the unavailability of funds required to submit surety bonds amounting to Rs1.2 million.

She said there were nine children, four from Islamabad and five from Punjab, who needed to be released in light of the court order. The human rights ministry has approached the Punjab home department, the National Commission on the Rights of Child, and the Child Protection Bureau for the purpose and still waiting for their response, she added. “The issue will be sorted out soon,” she added.

Ms Batool said the primary issue in this case was the money needed for surety bonds while the housing for these minors — as enshrined in the Juvenile Justice System Act 2018 — was a “secondary one”.

“This [housing] is another [major] issue…we have approached the Punjab home department to find their legal guardians to resolve this problem,” according to the spokesperson.

She added that the Child Protection Institute run by the human rights ministry does not have the “capacity to house these children” since they fell in an older age bracket.

The human rights ministry had established Aitzaz Hasan Child Protection Institute in Islamabad in 2019 to house vulnerable kids but this building has not been operational at present.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2022