PESHAWAR, Feb 23: The federal and the NWFP governments have so far been unable to extend the Juvenile Justice Ordinance, 2000, either to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) or the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata) despite passage of over two years.
It may be recalled that to deal with matters relating to juvenile offenders the president had promulgated the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance on July 1, 2000.
Under Article 247 of the Constitution, no law could be extended to Fata without the permission of the president.
Similarly, no law could be extended to Pata without the instructions of the governor with prior approval of the president.
For extending a law to Fata and Pata separate notifications are required. Despite repeated demands by civil society groups the juvenile ordinance has yet not been extended to Fata and Pata.
It is learnt that a number of juvenile offenders were tried by normal courts in Pata. The situation in Fata is more alarming as normal courts do not exist there and political agents and assistant political agents act as administrative as well as judicial officers. The superior courts could not exercise any jurisdiction there.
Last year, the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, delegated juvenile court powers to all the district and sessions judges. Later, these powers were delegated on additional district and sessions judges and judicial magistrates. However, as the ordinance was not extended to Pata, judicial officers there could not exercise those powers.
Pata include the districts of Chitral, Swat, Buner, Shangla, Lower Dir and Upper Dir, and Malakand protected area.
The national project coordinator of Sparc (Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child), Arshad Mehmood, told Dawn that it was necessary to extend the law to Pata and Fata as a number of children had been arrested and tried in these area under different laws, specially under narcotics laws.
He said the government should at least extend the law to Pata for the time being as the situation in Fata was a bit complex due to non-existence of regular judicial structure there.
Mr Mehmood said that Sparc had already taken up the issue with the government and had also sent a letter to the NWFP governor on Feb 17 in this regard. He recalled that at a seminar held last month they had highlighted various issues pertaining to a child offender including extension of the law and establishment of Borstal institutions in the province.
