ISLAMABAD, Dec 17:  Pakistan ratified United Nations convention regarding juveniles in the year 2000 but not a single juvenile court has been established, even after the passage of 13 years.

There are only four borstals (youth prison) in the country due to which children are kept in regular jails.

This was stated by participants at the National Stakeholders Conference on Juvenile Justice System in Pakistan, organised by Society for Human Rights and Prisoners Aid (SHARP) on Monday.

Advocate Supreme Court Anees Jillani while talking to participants said that we have to reconsider the minimum age — which in Pakistan is 7 — to fix criminal obligation on a person. In Afghanistan minimum age to start criminal proceedings against a person is 11 years and there are countries in which the age is 13 to 15 years.

“According to my point of view, we should have punishment for juveniles but they should have different procedures for the trial and in the jails their counseling should be done, in order to reform them,” he stressed.

“Unfortunately I have seen children in jails who spent years for ignorable crimes. A child in Karachi jail spent four years just because he had stolen a parrot. Another one was arrested because he had stolen flour from a shop,” Jillani informed.

“There are only two borstals in Punjab and two in Sindh. In Punjab, borstals are in Bahawalpur and Faisalabad. Parents from Rawalpindi cannot afford to visit a borstal, so they prefer that their children are kept in Adiala Jail,” he said.

Jillani recommended that “we should introduce community punishment for children. Under the present system Station House Officers are bound to lodge FIR against juveniles. In Europe police officers or court can send a child in some welfare centre to work for some time as a form of punishment.”

Advisor to prime minister on human rights Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said that issues regarding juveniles can only be addressed by increasing the literacy rate and giving awareness to the people.

He said that the society had been politicised due to which it had become difficult to resolve issues. The government had been trying to build consensus on issues like juvenile justice system, he assured.

Ambassador of Germany Dr Cyrill Nunn said that Pakistan’s 40 per cent population is less than the age of 14 years. It can be converted to a financial resource for the country, if the government trains them and channels their energies towards something constructive.

Former DG Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Saiyed Mohib Asad said that according to the figures provided by the Government of Pakistan, out of 187 million people, 86 million are below the age of 18 years. Around 34 million children belong to families which are below the poverty line.

Asad said that children are involved in all kinds of crimes ranging from murder to petty theft.

At the moment there are over 100 children in Adiala Jail and out of them 50 per cent were involved in drug trafficking. Besides, children are being used for suicide attacks, panelists elaborated.

Anees Jillani on a positive note concluded that during the last 13 years, the number of children in jails was reduced to 50 percent (from 5,000 to 2,500) which is a positive sign.