ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister’s Youth Programme (PMYP) in collaboration with the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) has successfully launched a project for the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders at Quetta district jail, Balochistan.
Justice Munawar Ali Shahwani from Balochistan High Court (BHC), Quetta inaugurated the training activity.
The project was one of the priority projects identified at the UN-PMYP Needs Assessment Conference on “Youth Engagement, Skills Development and Employment Facilitation,” held in Islamabad in May 2015.
The objective of the project is to invest in juvenile offenders and offer them opportunities to become agents of peace and prosperity in their respective communities. On the successful completion of training, the trainees will be awarded certificates.
The UNOCT has provided the requisite training equipment and material to train juveniles at Quetta district jail in the trades of ‘Motorcycle Mechanic” and ‘Tailoring’ for a three-month period so that they could become useful members of the society after their release from prison. Balochistan Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Balochistan TEVTA) has provided two expert trainers for this purpose.
Prime Minister’s Youth Programme Chairperson, Leila Khan said, “It is for the first time in the history of Pakistan that such a project has started for the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders in prisons”.
“We are already running similar training sessions for juveniles in Haripur Prison and planning to replicate the same model very soon in Hyderabad and Mardan Jails in collaboration with the UNOCT”, she remarked.
