Pakistan: Juvenile justice, at last
Social workers sacrificing their time (and sometimes money) for
protecting the rights of children should be happy that their long and
laboured efforts have borne fruit with at least one legislation — the
Juvenile Justice System Ordinance which invests the entire proceedings
in the trial and conviction of youngsters with the basic principles laid
down by international bodies, and accepted by Pakistan as binding on it.
It is another matter that our courts and prisons, the most concerned
in these trials, have yet to be fully briefed about the contents of the
ordinance which is now more than two years old. No wonder their
officials are taken by surprise when told about its almost radical
nature.
I have written a couple of times on this subject, so sensitive to the
hearts and minds of the truly enlightened, but treated by successive
governments with the same insensitivity as would a law related to
cruelty to animals. In fact I want to reproduce for my readers a few
excerpts from a column I wrote on 27 June, 1998, just to show how I have
felt about the matter, but first I must tell you how the new law is
going to make a difference to youthful offenders.
First of all, the JJS Ordinance prescribes an age for the juvenile,
the child caught in crime. He/she has to be below eighteen years old in
order to benefit from its provisions. This age is also reflected in the
revolutionary clause that no one below this age will suffer the sentence
of death or ordered to labour during the time spent in confinement, or
be handcuffed or fettered or given any corporal punishment in custody.
Thankfully all the four provinces have notified the rules governing
trial of a child offender, because it is the rules that lay down
guidelines for the courts and prisons.
The guardian of the child and the probation officer must be informed
as soon as possible of the arrest. Besides, the ordinance lays down
criteria and the procedure to be followed at all stages of the juvenile
trial and conviction. Bail and release on probation have been made easy,
while bail may only be refused if it would put the child to any danger.
The law also restricts to the barest minimum the number of persons who
will be present in court during the trial. No child will be tried for an
offence together with an adult, but by separate juvenile courts to be
set up for the purpose.
So it is an enlightened legislation, truly great for a country like
Pakistan where successive governments — and elected governments at that
— have been notoriously and shockingly unmindful of the rights of the
child and have woken up to the horrors of child labour too only when
obliged to do so by world opinion. Much of the highfalutin talk that we
hear about children being made to work themselves to the bone would
never have seen the light of day if America had not decided to boycott
any goods produced in Pakistan through child labour, including the
expensive carpets that earn so much foreign exchange for us.
Now you must bear with me and go through a portion of my old column
mentioned above. I wrote: “Who says that governments in Pakistan are not
bothered about the universal law for the rights of children? And who is
the mulk dushman who alleges that the ruling regime, with its
unforgettable huge mandate, is insensitive to the plight of the children
of poor parents? Read this news item published in an Urdu daily of
Islamabad.”
“On the direction of the Deputy Commissioner,
Islamabad, a ban has been imposed on begging by little children and on
child labour. Children caught during the first week will be let off with
a warning, but after that those defying the ban will be arrested and
sent to jail. This was disclosed by the AC (City) before a gathering of
NGOs and journalists.”
“The intention in the latter case probably was that the little boys
and girls should get reformed in prison by living in the company of
hardened criminals, rapists, child-lifters, dacoits and murderers, and
be convinced by this breed to refrain from the heinous crime of begging
and working to feed their families. The AC (a lady, by the way) did not
tell the gathering whether the children rounded up by the administration
would be sent to Rawalpindi Jail, or whether she and the DC ran a
special borstal institution for little ones in Islamabad. Also, would
their parents be imprisoned too for letting their kids indulge in the
crime of earning a precarious living?”
“I don’t know about the DC, but the young lady has a very fine
reputation as an officer of integrity and intelligence. I don’t know if
she is married, and with children, and whether the DC too has children
or not. But if obsession with the DMG leaves the two any time for
sensitivity, let them imagine how they would feel if they were to see
their little ones begging on the streets and cleaning the cars of the
rich to earn a few rupees. Times don’t take long to change.”
Admittedly written in anger, impotent anger, but what else can a
commentator on public events do when words of advice seem to fall on
deaf ears? Insensitive young officers who hold in their hands the
destiny of the common man in this country deserve stronger admonishment.
I wonder what the ancient Hindu raja and saint Bhartihari had in mind
whose words were quoted by Allama Iqbal in a verse, “Mard-e-naadan par
kalam-e-narm-o-nazuk be-asar;” that sweet words are wasted on the
ignorant. I had no means of knowing at that time if the DC and the AC
had read my column, so I couldn’t revel in the vanity that I had created
an impact. However, like all ad hoc official decisions in Pakistan
nothing was later heard of the ban.
As for why boys (and girls) in their teens take to crime, it would be
trite to say that it is more useful to look at society rather at those
children to find out the reasons. But this much I would like to add
before I close. When we talk of children and their welfare it is not
necessarily our own children. As we are fond of pontificating, children
are our collective responsibility — yours and mine and that of the
state. This responsibility has to be consciously shared. Where children
are concerned we cannot afford to be selfish and selective. And
decidedly, no good can come out of sending little boys and girls to
prison.
By Hafizur Rahman
17 November 2003
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2003-daily/15-11-2003/oped/o6.htm
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