KARACHI, Aug 26: Chief Justice of Sindh High Court Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed on Friday launched a free legal assistance service for children in detention in Karachi. The service, named ‘Project Advocate’, is part of a project being managed in Pakistan by the Law Society of England and Wales in partnership with the British Pakistan Law Council.

The project will establish a network of lawyers in Karachi and Lahore working pro-bono, meaning for the public good, to provide legal assistance to children in detention.

It has received international support from the European Commission, under the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights, and the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, under the Global Opportunities Fund.

The launching ceremony, held at the British High Commission, was attended by local lawyers, judiciary, government officials, law students and civil society.

The guests of honour included Advocate General Sindh Anwar Mansoor Khan and CPLC Chief Sharfuddin Memon.

British Deputy High Commissioner Hamish Daniel and EC Acting Head of Delegation Balthaser Benz also addressed the ceremony as representatives of the donors.

BPLC Project Leader Mahnaz Malik said: “Our goal is to work together with the government and civil society to further build upon the efforts to improve access to justice for the vulnerable in Pakistan.”

The Project Advocate has signed a memoranda of cooperation with the provincial home department and the CPLC for its effectively implementation, that includes display of posters at police stations and courts in Karachi with key legal rights of children upon arrest and detention.

Fiona Woolf, President of the Law Society of England and Wales said: “The Project Advocate offers British and Pakistani lawyers an opportunity to work together and provides vital legal assistance to extremely vulnerable children in detention. This initiative will ensure that more young people in Lahore and Karachi have immediate access to legal advice.”

The Law Society was represented by Ms Charlotte Ford, International Projects Officer, and Sylun Ali, International Executive Assistant for South Asia.

The launching of the project coincided with the first training course for lawyers joining the pro-bono network in Karachi. The same programme will run in Lahore next week.

Representatives of key stakeholders in the juvenile justice system in Karachi gave participants a briefing about the project during the first day of the course, which will go on to include skills training from UK lawyers provided by Advocates for International Development (A4ID), a UK initiative coordinating the international pro-bono work of major UK law firms.

“The A4ID’s first set of volunteers -- Aamir Khan (Richards Butler), Safora Syed (Warwick Chambers), Simon Lawrenson (Linklaters) and Shiraz Aziz (Sheikh & Co) -- will be in Pakistan to share ideas and expertise regarding the rights of juveniles and detainees, the criminal justice system in England and Wales, case management and advocacy skills,” explained Katie Hutt, Director of A4ID.

The project was launched by Cherie Blair, Governor Lt-Gen (r) Khalid Maqbool and llkka Uusitalo in Lahore in April this year. Speaking on the occasion Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed said the subject of juvenile justice had always remained dear to him.

He emphasised that our first priority should be to verify the statistics like those of children in jails. He said he was told that these run into thousands in Karachi alone.

Justice Ahmed also made mention of the Sindh Juvenile Assistance Rules which provide that sessions judges will keep a panel of lawyers to represent juvenile offenders.

He noted that the Sindh Children Act was far more progressive and provided protection to children whereby children below the age of 16 years could not be kept in jail at all.—APP