Firsthand knowledge: Overcrowding, disease, brutality plague prisons

Released death row convict tells about pathetic jail conditions, dedicates life to welfare of prisoners

PESHAWAR: Sajjad Ahmad, 40, a death-row inmate who just got released on the orders of the Supreme Court has decided to spend the rest his life dedicated to the welfare of the inmates who according to him are living in miserable conditions.

Ahmad spent 15 years of his life in prison thus has better knowledge and firsthand experience of the troubles and misery that the inmates face in the overcrowded prisons of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. He came to the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday to attend his case in which he has pleaded the court to take notice of the overcrowded prisons in the province.

“I remained in prison for the over 15 years, I have gone through all those sufferings that the prisoners are passing through in our prisons,” said Ahmad, who has filed the petition the court on Wednesday to secure rights for the prisoners. “Across the world, a prison cell is considered a place of reformation, but in our country, prisons create more criminals.”



Through his writ petition, Ahmad pointed out that a jail in Swabi has the capacity for 125 prisoners but government has kept 640 prisoners there. He added that inside the jail, prisoners are treated in an ‘inhuman way’ they are treated like ‘animals.’

Ahmad revealed that due to an unhygienic environment, most of the inmates in Swabi prison, are suffering from sarcoptic mange.

He informed that so far doctors have tested 125 inmates out of which 12 prisoners were diagnosed with HIV/Aids and 50 sufferings of A B and C type Hepatitis.

Through his petition submitted to the court on Wednesday, he told that court that there are 25 jails in the province out of which five are major prisons. However, only in Peshawar Jail, there are over 5,000 inmates which is several times more than its capacity. He added that it’s very unfortunate that there are no health facilities available.

“For every illness there one type of tablet doctors are recommending to sick inmates,” he said. “Due to my 15 years long stay in jails, I’ve found that maximum of inmates are suffering from the kidney diseases, diabetes, blood pressure, Hepatitis and now even HIV/AIDs have been diagnosed among the prisoners.”



“They (inmates) have been kept like animals,” he expressed. Like other human beings that they have also some rights but here they are totally deprived of it.”Ahmad added that the constitution of the country ensured the protection of their rights, therefore, the best way is to file a petition in the court of justice to secure rights.

Among the prisoners, he has seen while in prison himself, there are also high numbers of women who are accompanied of their innocent children who have committed no crime, but are sufferings and have no future after release from prison.

Through his petition, he asked the court to direct the prison officials to provide data of the number of prisoners suffering from different diseases. He asked the court to provide the data of women prisoners with their children and what facilities are provided for their education. And what is the actual capacity of every jail and how many prisoners are kept in every prison of the province? He also asked the court to issue directives to district headquarter hospitals to conduct screening of all the inmates and submit the report to the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2018.