PESHAWAR, Oct 3 The Juvenile Justice Working Group on Saturday called upon the provincial government to include establishment of a reformatory for juvenile offenders in the proposed project of construction of a central prison in Mardan.

The group also expressed concern over the non-inclusion of their members in the federal working group recently set up by the government in collaboration with the Unicef.

A meeting of the group, presided over by its chairman Fasihuddin, director of Research and Development Department of Police, discussed various issues including the Juvenile Justice Policy, the Child Protection Policy and Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, etc.

The meeting, attended by members belonging to different government departments and NGOs, was held at the newly established Child Protection Centre of the police set up in collaboration with Save the Children Sweden and Regional Directorate of Human Rights.

The meeting was informed that the provincial government had given approval for construction of a central prison in Mardan over a vast piece of land. The participants stated that it was need of the hour to establish a borstal institution along with the prison.

Mr Fasihuddin pointed out that under the Juvenile Justice System Rules the government had to establish borstal institution at each district, whereas presently not a single borstal institution had been established by the government.

The participants took notice of the establishment of the federal Juvenile Working Group observing that they had replicated the entire terms of reference of the provincial working group, but had not given representation to any member of the group.

One of the speakers pointed out that police were the major stakeholder and no member of the police department had been included in the federal group.

About the juvenile justice policy, the head of Pakistan Paediatric Association, Dr Tufail Mohammad, said that the Child Protection Policy was in the final stages and awaiting approval of the federal cabinet.