KARACHI, April 13: Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc) on Friday appreciated President Musharraf’s move of granting total remission for all juvenile convicts.

In a statement, Akhtar Hussain Baloch, regional manager of Sparc Sindh, welcomed the announcement and termed it as a ‘child-friendly move’ of the government and suggested further legal concessions for the juvenile convicts.

President Pervez Musharaf has announced remission of one-year for the woman convicts with children, so as to provide relief to the innocent child, and total remission for all juvenile convicts on the occasion of Eid Miladun Nabi.

However, the prisoners convicted for anti-state offences, espionage, sectarianism, rape, robbery, kidnapping and terrorism are denied these special concessions.

Mr Baloch said there were only 27 convicted juvenile prisoners while 620 juvenile offenders were under trial in the prisons of Sindh. Of them, 350 are under trial for the last four months, he added.

“Hence, the special concession given by the president does not benefit most of the juvenile offenders of Sindh province. Therefore, the government should also consider the case of these under trial juvenile offenders,” he said.

The statement cited the section 10(3) of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) saying that a child arrested for a bail-able offense should be released, with or without surety.

“All the under trial children charged with bail-able offenses should be released in accordance with the CRC”, demanded Mr Baloch.