LAHORE, Nov 5: As many as 1,586 juvenile offenders are languishing in prisons across the Punjab. This was informed at the launch of a book titled "Waiting for the Sunrise: Juvenile Justice in Pakistan" by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) at the Lahore Press Club on Friday.

Under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000, a separate prison has been recommended in every district of the province and also rehabilitation of the prisoners. But the government has yet to do anything practical to implement the ordinance.

Provincial law secretary Sheikh Ahmad Farooq suggested that a central authority should be established to monitor the implementation of the juvenile justice system.

He said the government should allocate special funds to provide the juvenile prisoners with free legal aid. Besides, he said, a separate judge should deal with the cases of juvenile prisoners.

SPARC's provincial coordinator Jawad Aslam said due to lack of interest by the department concerned the ordinance was not being implemented. He said if the juvenile court refused the release of a child then he\she should not be kept in the police station. Instead, he\she must be placed under the custody of a probation officer.

He said the department concerned should ask the senior police officers to send the copies of the ordinance to every police station in the province and hold the SHOs responsible if it was not observed.

The society's coordinator urged the Lahore High Court chief justice to order establishment of panel of lawyers under the ordinance in all the districts to provide legal aid to under-trial juvenile offenders.

According to information gleaned by this reporter, juvenile prisoners in Faisalabad and Bahawalpur borstals are being trained in carpet weaving, which has already been declared the worst form of child labour by the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention of 182.

Besides, the ordinance bounds police to inform the guardian of an arrested child before registering any case against him - a fact which no station house officer in the province is aware of.