HYDERABAD, April 20: Former chief justice of the Sindh High Court and chief of the committee for welfare of women prisoners, Justice (rtd) Nasir Aslam Zahid, has called for implementing the Probation Ordinance 1960 so that some relief could be given to prisoners.

Talking to journalists after visiting the women’s prison in the Hyderabad central jail on Thursday, he said that absence of remand homes for keeping juvenile offenders and non-implementation of laws were serious problems facing the country.

“The Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 is not being implemented effectively because successive governments failed to introduce proper schemes for implementation of laws in question”, said Justice Zahid.

He said that in Karachi a remand home was established on rented premises for keeping children of 14 or below 14 years of age.

He stressed the need for setting up remand homes in each district or at least in major towns so that children who were accused of murder, theft or robbery could be kept there.

“It is really a big problem for courts where these children should be sent after they are produced before them”, he said.

He said that the judiciary had to face problems while remanding juvenile offenders to safe places which did not exist as required in the JJSO 2000.

He said the government should own houses on rental basis and depute its staff as head for supervision adding that women prison of Karachi was set up in 1997 but it had not sanctioned staff and Larkana’s staff was managing its affairs.

He said that besides the judiciary, the executive has to do so many things for welfare of women and juvenile offenders to improve conditions of prisons and prisoners.

He said that neither juvenile nor adult offenders could be kept in chains in police lock-up or jail.