PESHAWAR, March 13: The Peshawar High Court has asked the NWFP government to provide legal assistance to juvenile offenders and appoint a panel of lawyers for the purpose in every district.

The high court registrar, Saleem Khan Minakhel had sent a letter to the secretary, NWFP home and tribal affairs department, last week stating that under section 3 of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, children who are accused of the commission of offences or are victims of offences have the right to legal assistance at State expanse.

Few days back the Peshawar district and sessions judge, Hayat Ali Shah had sent a letter to high court, requesting that the issue of legal assistance for the juvenile offenders should be taken up with the government. Similar requests have also been received from other districts also.

The registrar requested the government that immediate steps may be taken for the appointment of legal practitioners in all the districts of the province for the purpose so that trials of the cases under the said ordinance in which legal assistance was required at the state expense, were concluded without any further delay.

Although, the ordinance was promulgated in 2000, nothing was done by the government for the establishment of separate juvenile courts in the province.

Last year, the chief justice of high court, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, issued a notification through which powers of juvenile courts were delegated to all the district and sessions judges.

Due to the growing number of cases of juvenile offenders, another notification was issued on Jan 24 through which the juvenile courts’ powers were also delegated to all the additional district and sessions judges and first class judicial magistrates.

The provincial judiciary has now been trying to completely comply with the provisions of the said ordinance.In a recent case, one of the judicial magistrates refused to send a juvenile to prison, stating that he could only be kept in a Borstal institution.

The government has not established any Borstal institution in the province due to which the probation officers have been facing problems in looking after cases of juvenile offenders.