KARACHI, Dec 2: Over 97 per cent of teenagers languishing in the city’s Youthful Offenders Industrial School, or juvenile jail, are under-trial prisoners, who until proven guilty, can be termed innocent.

Sources said of over 450 young prisoners, 440 are facing trials and only 10 have been convicted, which reveals how cases are being delayed and how a sensitive section of our population is being treated.

Sources said 182 juvenile prisoners are being tried for dacoities and thefts while 73 are facing charges pertaining to arms possession.

Sixty juveniles are facing charges under foreigners’ act, 39 have been booked for murders, 33 have narcotics cases against them. Thirty-two are facing assault cases, 10 have zina cases against them while one is involved in a kidnapping case. Ten more prisoners are facing some other charges.

The sources said these teenagers are facing trial owing to lack of awareness among defence lawyers, prosecution, police and members of the lower judiciary

The juvenile justice system prescribes lenient attitude towards youngsters, and if it is implemented effectively, vary few minors would be in jail.

The sources said under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000, the Juvenile Court has to decide a case within four months, and a child and an adult could not be charged for an offence together, etc., but these rules are rarely implemented as a majority of the policemen, lawyers and members of the lower judiciary are not aware of rules and youth continue to suffer in the process.

Responding to Dawn queries, a former chief justice of Pakistan, Sajjad Ali Shah, said under the juvenile justice system, cases relating to youth are to be tried in special courts and speedy trial courts with easy procedures.

Under this JJS procedure, bail has been made easier and even those crimes which are not bailable for adults in normal circumstances, become bailable for youth under this system.

Even after the conviction, the JJS provides that the offenders could be released on probation, he said, and added that a large number of lawyers and even many members of the lower judiciary are not even aware of this law owing to which youth are languishing in prisons.

Justice Shah spoke about the standard of law education and said that here people are studying in law colleges in evenings as a part-time, but suggested that classes be held in mornings and syllabus be updated so that qualified graduates emerge who could protect rights of the people.

In reply to the Dawn queries, the Sindh chief of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Zohra Yusuf said slow judicial process and long trails were major reasons behind the sufferings of juvenile UTPs.

She said only less than three per cent of the inmates are convicted, while the rest could be termed innocent, until proven guilty.

She said when a child goes to jail, his education, healthy mental growth and innocence are lost.

The young prisoners, except in Karachi, are kept in jails, though in separate barracks in some cases, with adult prisoners all over the province where youngsters are exposed to all kinds of mental and physical abuses.

She said that rather than punishing youngsters with sentences, reforms should be stressed so that they could become responsible citizens and play their due role in the society.

Responding to the Dawn queries, Sindh chief of the Society for Protection of Rights of the Child (SPARC), Akhtar Baloch, said the situation could only improve when the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 and the Probation Ordinance are implemented properly.