PESHAWAR, June 19: Different courts in Peshawar have been dealing with cases of juvenile offenders despite having no jurisdiction under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000.

The chief justice of the Peshawar High Court had conferred powers of juvenile courts on the district and sessions judges across the province under the said ordinance on April 14, following which other courts ceased to have jurisdiction in dealing of those cases.

Under the ordinance, all cases of juveniles pending before other courts had to be transferred to the district and sessions judge, Peshawar, Ziauddin Khattak, by the subordinate courts.

It is learnt that an additional district and sessions judge, Pir Baksh, has convicted a 17-year-old boy in a narcotics case and sentenced him to 10 years rigorous imprisonment. At the time of the commission of offence on June 3, 2000, the boy, Tariq, was 15. Under the law every person who at the time of commission of an offence has not attained the age of 18 years, shall be considered a child.

The court pronounced its verdict on June 10. The boy was driving a donkey-cart and was arrested in the jurisdiction of Pishtakhara police. The police had recovered 19 kgs of charas and 3 kgs of opium concealed in the cart.

A lawyer dealing with cases of juveniles said that in other districts the district and sessions judges were not paying due attention to juveniles cases. He added that the provincial government had also not appointed a panel of lawyers who, under the ordinance, were supposed to represent a juvenile offender.