Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000 (XXII of 2000)

The PPC (Pakistan Penal Code 1860) remained the major law governing crime and criminals in relation to children until the introduction of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 (JJSO). However, there are still many provisions of the PPC and the Criminal Procedure Code 1898 that continue to apply to the children. Section 82 of the Pakistan penal Code (PPC), for instance, says that nothing is an offense which is done by a child under seven years of age. This section is often criticized and there is a need to upgrade this age to a reasonable one reflecting our civilized status in the comity of nations. PPC's section 83 gives judge discretion to ignore the age stated in section 82 and raise it up to 12 years, in the case of a child who has not attained sufficient maturity of understanding to judge the nature and consequences of his or her conduct on that occasion. The two sections can be merged by a simple amendment and the minimum age of criminal responsibility raised to 12 years.

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