Rights violation: Magistrate annoyed over children’s arrests, orders immediate release

Constitution says no child under the age of seven may be indicted in a case.

KARACHI: The police have gone a step further than their Lahori counterparts with regards to the violation of child rights.

The worst example of such violations emerged on Saturday, when the police presented 10 children, aged between two months to 10 years before the court. The children were accused of extending life threats, disrupting law and order and obstructing public servants in discharging official duties.

Unlike his counterpart in Lahore, the judicial magistrate in question took serious notice of the violation of child rights and ordered their immediate release, lawyer Nadeem Mangi told reporters.

The judicial magistrate in district West, Sohail Ahmed Mashori, ordered the relevant deputy-inspector general of police and the prosecutor general to take action against the Gulshan-e-Maymar SHO and the district attorney.

Gulshan-e-Maymar police had booked and arrested 10 children, including two-month-old Amirzada, one-year-old Yasin Aman, six-year-old Zarina, three-year-old Feroza, 10-year-old Ehsan, 10-year-old Zohrah, 10-year-old Yasin, two-year-old Ismail and two-year-old Manzoor.

Haji Adam Jokhio, an XEN with the anti-encroachment department, had alleged that they had launched an operation to remove shanties from state land on Friday, but the occupants obstructed the discharge of official duties and threatened the team with dire consequences. Police had booked and arrested them under FIR No. 59/2014, registered under Sections 506-B, 186, 147, 148, 149 and 448 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

On Saturday, the investigation officer produced all the suspects before the judge to seek their physical custody to carry out further investigation.

This irritated the judge, who came down hard on the investigation officer and the district public prosecutor over the arrest and production of the minor children in the court, in direct violation of the laws.

Exercising his powers under Section 163 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the magistrate ordered immediate release of all the suspects.

The magistrate also ordered the relevant DIG to initiate action against the Gulshan-e-Maymar SHO over the arrest of under-age boys and girls, which was in sheer violation of the laws. Moreover, the provincial prosecutor-general was directed to take action against the district public prosecutor, who failed to point out legal violations in the police’s case.

What the law says

According to Section 82 of the Pakistan Penal Code, a child under the age of seven cannot be indicted in any proceedings. The child will be presumed innocent even if there are allegations against him or her and their name shall not be included in the FIR.

Section 83 broadens this immunity for children till the age of 12. For those children aged between seven and 12 , it is up to the discretion of the judicial magistrate to decide whether the child is mature enough to stand trial. The judicial magistrate must take into account the physical and mental maturity of the child in question. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2014.