Daily Times

Sir, Juvenile Justice System 2000 was introduced in Pakistan during former President General Pervez Musharraf’s time under immense international pressure by international child rights organisations. JJSO had been amended by last PPP coalition government inserting a provision for empowering Federal government to establish of juvenile courts for dealing with matters relating to juveniles.

Until today not a single juvenile court has been establish across Pakistan. Juveniles across Pakistan are treated and manhandled in the courts and put in jails with adult prisoners instead of borstals that is prohibited under JJSO. Until the year of 2000 some provisions of Pakistan Penal Code 1860 remained main law for governing juvenile offenders until the promulgation of JJSO 2000. Numerous provisions of Criminal Procedure Code 1898 are still applicable to juvenile offenders.

Another worrying point is that no accurate data is available with the government that how juveniles across Pakistan are on death row and sentenced to life imprisonment. It is not out of place to mention that the jail authorities don’t really tend to pay attention to juveniles rehabilitation, and reformation of juveniles who come in conflict with law accidentally or implicated intentionally for ill means.

JJSO prohibits awarding of the death penalty to the juvenile but in past the courts had laid down the death sentence to juveniles in sheer violation of international child rights convention and domestic law of JJSO. For instance, Muhammad Iqbal was tried by the trial court in 1999 and his age was determined less than 18 years old after ossification test. In spite of that the court awarded death sentence to Muhammad Iqbal who is at risk of imminent execution. His trial was concluded two years prior to promulgation of JJSO but at that time Pakistan was a party to convention of child rights that prohibited awarding of the death penalty to juveniles. Many examples can be quotes in support of this. Pakistan intends to become a civilised and tolerant country to achieve this the authorities and the government departments even I include the citizens of Pakistan to believing forgiveness. Execution is not an answer to Pakistan’s high rate of crime nor through executions Pakistan can become peaceful.

SARMAD ALI

Lahore

Published in Daily Times, August 7^th 2017.