Prison conditions: Three panels to oversee female, child inmates

ISLAMABAD:

The federal ombudsman has constituted three panels to oversee the condition of children and women in the country’s prisons.

The first committee, headed by former chief secretary K-P Ejaz Qureshi, will oversee the rights of child prisoners. A second panel -- headed by senior adviser  of the federal ombudsman Farah Tareen and consisting of 10 members -- will monitor the rights of women in jails. The third panel headed by Hafiz Ahsan Khokhar will propose the rights of prisoners.

However, the federal ombudsman has sought assistance from the Supreme Court. The committees, according to the ombudsman, will not be able to complete their task, unless all related federal and provincial agencies extend full support Federal ombudsman seeks help from SC for implementation of mandateto them. Their concerns stem from the paucity of resources which may be another constraint for the proposed reforms in jails.

On the Supreme Court’s order in a suo motu case on the condition of jails, the federal ombudsman and secretary of the Law and Justice Commission have submitted a report in the apex court.

Citing a meeting of all stakeholders held on the implementation of the court’s May 28 order, the report said that all the provincial ombudsmen and provincial agencies had identified a litany of woes that different prisons faced across the country.

Participants at the meeting observed that the situation of prisons was most alarming in Balochistan. There are currently only 11 jails in 32 districts of the province. For the most part, inmates are living in “inhuman conditions”.

The report shows that there is no separate jail for juveniles and women in Balochistan.

The inspector general (IG) of prisons told the participants that he is not authorised in general matters and the authority generally vests in the provincial home department.

The Supreme Court has issued a damning verdict on May 28 regarding the miserable condition of women inmates. It states that there is near total failure of the regulatory framework in relation to prisons condition.

According to the data presented before the apex court, at the end of April this year, the total prison population in Pakistan was approximately 82,779 inmates. The authorised capacity of 46,705 housed in 88 jails across the country.

While the number of male inmates forms more than half of the prison population, the number of women inmates is still below jail capacity. According to the data, 80,611 males are imprisoned against actual housing capacity of 44,309. However, 2,168 females are in prison against their total capacity of 2,396.

The bench also referred to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report in its order. “During the prison survey, UNODC found prevalence of suicidal depression, sleep disorders and other mental illness among female prisoners. No gynaecologist was available to call to attend to female prisoners in Punjab,” the order read.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2015.