PESHAWAR, Feb 17: Society for the Protection of Rights of the Child (Sparc) has demanded of the government to implement laws related to child rights in the NWFP.

“There is a dire need to protect child’s rights in the NWFP and the government should take effective measures to ensure it,” said a press release issued by Sparc here on Monday.

Sparc project coordinator, Arshad Mehmood, asked the provincial government to make laws relating to the protection of the rights of children on the pattern of Sindh Children Act 1955 and the Punjab Children Ordinance 1983.

Mr Mehmood said that urgent steps should be taken by the government to extend the Juvenile System Ordinance 2000 to Provincially Administered Tribal Areas. Children under 15 years of age who are languishing in prisons on minor offences should be released immediately, he added.

He said that convicted juveniles should be shifted to Borstal Institute and for this reason construction of the Borstal institutes in Peshawar and Bannu needed to be completed on time. The government should convert the Adolescent Training Centre in Haripur Jail into a Borstal institute, he added.

Mr Mehmood said there was a dire need to make functional exclusive juvenile courts in Kohat, Peshawar, Mardan and Swat. He said that the government had already released funds to the Peshawar High Court to appoint probation officers in every district in this regard.

Sparc also demanded of the government to implement the NWFP Compulsory Primary Education Act of 1996, so that free education could be provided to every child at least till primary level.

Mr Mehmood said that compulsory primary education and ban on the corporal punishment in schools would help improve the situation regarding education rights of the children.