Society for the Rights for the Protection of Children (SPARC) has called for amendment in section 14 of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) to resolve the ambiguity by replacing the sentence "not in derogation of any other law for the time being in force" with the sentence "this law will have overriding affect on any other law for the time being in force".
Fahmina Naz, the Child Protection Officer SPARC, briefed that the 2000 Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) gave protection in trial and imprisonment, and the ordinance says, "provincial government must establish juvenile courts".
These court suggested in the ordinance should be set up in consultation with the Chief Justice of High Court and will have exclusive jurisdiction to try cases in which child is accused of an offence, he demanded.
He said under the law court must have to decide cases within four months and every child was entitled to legal assistance at the State's expense. "No child can be charged or tried with an adult and all girls and boys should be tried separately by the juvenile court", he added.
Rashid Aziz, Regional Manager SPARC said that incidents of juveniles being arrested under the Anti Terrorism Act (ATA ) and their trial at the Anti-Terrorism court (ATC) were not rare. He also said that children as young as 12 had been arrested and detained for alleged offences under the 1997 Act.
He pointed out that section 14 of JJSO says, "Provision of this ordinance shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, any other law for the time being in force" The Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) is a child friendly law but Section 14 of the ordinance made the juvenile justice procedure more complicated and created ambiguity to access the justice for juvenile offenders.