PESHAWAR: District and Sessions Judge Inamullah Wazir expressed concern over presence of scores of Afghan juvenile suspects in the Peshawar Central Prison under the Foreigners’ Act and directed the prison authorities to contact the provincial home department for their early deportation. The judge issued the directives when he came across around 25 such prisoners during his visit to the prison last Friday. An official of the district court said that the judge directed the prison’s superintendent to initiate communication with the relevant officials of the home department in this regard and also inform the court about development in the matter. These juvenile suspects were mostly arrested over the period of time after they had crossed into to Pakistan via Torkham for petty work, and were charged under section 14 of the Foreigners’ Act for not having any documents to travel to Pakistan. Authorities detain several people for violating Foreigners’ Act An official said that one of the juvenile suspects, who was around 10-11 years of age, started crying when he saw the district judge and other judicial officers accompanying him. Some of them complained that they had no money and no second pair of clothes to wear. The prison officials informed the district judge that they had earlier communicated to the home department about the presence of these juvenile suspects and the issue of their deportation. However, they said that no deportation arrangements could be made so far in this regard by the authorities concerned. The district judge said that urgent steps were required for reuniting these children with their families. The district judge conducted the visit as recently the Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim had issued directives to the district judges for conducting such visits of prisons in their respective districts. Mr Inamullah Wazir was accompanied by Senior Civil Judge (Admn) Imran Ullah, and Judicial Magistrate Waqar Khan. They also heard cases of some prisoners involved in petty cases and disposed of their cases by sentencing them to periods they had already spent in the prison. They visited different portions of the prions including the hospital, kitchen, barracks for juveniles as well as other prisoners. The district judge inspected the food prepared for the prisoners and directed the staff to make efforts for maintaining the quality of the food.