Pishin judicial lockup upgraded

Home minister stresses importance of intelligence system

PISHIN: Provincial Home Minister Mir Zia Langove on Wednesday upgraded the judicial lockup in Pishin as the district jail and announced the provision of necessary staff and other facilities there.

Talking to media persons during a visit to the district, the minister said the provincial government was taking revolutionary steps to protect the life and property of people. He said an effective intelligence system was necessary to maintain law and order in the province. Langove said that the quota of Levies posts had been increased to ensure peace.

District Police Officer (DPO) Tariq Elahi Mastoi briefed the minister about the performance and problems of his department. Langove told the police official that protection of citizens should be the top priority of the force and warned that negligence would not be tolerated in this regard.

Balochistan Assembly Opposition Leader Sikandar Khan, Minister Goram Bugti, Deputy Speaker Mitha Khan Kakar, Member of Provincial Assembly Syed Muhammad Fazal Agha, Haji Asghar Khan Tareen, Malik Naseer Ahmad Shahwani, Ahmad Nawaz Baloch, Akhtar Langove, Akbar Khan Mengal, and others were also present.

According to social activists, Rehmatullah Baloch most of the prisons in Balochistan are lacking basic amenities of life such as clean drinking water, safe edible stuff, hygiene and reasonable space for prisoners.

He said that the number of prisoners has almost doubled during the last ten years as there was a capacity of 2,173 in the total 11 prisons of the province.

Due to overcrowding, he said that the condition of most of the prisons in the province is terrible. Diseases such as Hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and TB are spreading due to the poor condition of cleanliness and non-availability of treatment facilities for the prisoners, especially the mentally-ill people, he added.

Samar Iqbal, a criminologist, said that due to degraded living conditions, cohabitation with other convicts and exposure to violence is resulting in anger against the society and state.

He said that prisoners should be treated in a human way and respect for the inherent dignity of the human.