REFORMATIVE JUSTICE IN ANGLO-MUHAMMADAN LAW: A CASE STUDY OF THE APPLICABILITY OF PROBATION AND PAROLE IN MARDAN, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA

Abstract

The development of reformative justice as an essential component of criminal justice system is historical. At present, community sentences as part of reformative justice are an integral part of criminal justice system of every civilized state around the world. The same is not true for Pakistan. For community sentences provide a substitute to an imprisonment in the form of probation and parole, whereby, an offender is reintegrated into society with an aim of rehabilitation. Nonetheless, the directorates of reclamation and probation, present in all the provinces of Pakistan are supposed to manage the release of offenders on probation and parole. Likewise, the release of offenders in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) too is managed by the Directorate of Reclamation and Probation as part of the Home and Tribal Affairs Department. The relevant laws legislated in 1960 have been very rarely applied as a correctional sentence and these remain an unrecognized division of sentencing by the government, judiciary and the public at large. This study is focused on the structure, competence and effectiveness of probation and parole system in the District Mardan of KP. The research paper inductively highlights the challenges that have impeded the applicability and practice of the two concepts and recommends measures for making these reformatory punishments more humane, efficient and effective in the broader context of inductive legal studies.