Conditions in prisons

Corruption in Pakistan’s prisons is not a new phenomenon. It has recently been revealed that jail officials in Sindh allow basis facilities to inmates only after their palms are greased. According to a report published in this newspaper, prisoners are compelled to pay bribes before their appearance in courts. If they don’t meet the demand of cops, their hands are so tightly cuffed or chained that they suffer deep cuts on their wrists. Those who pay money to cops are brought to courts without suffering bruises and cuts.

The report says more than 1,000 inmates from the Karachi Central Jail, Landhi and Malir jails are presented every day in courts. Since the police do not have a sufficient number of handcuffs to go round for such large numbers, they often chain them up, in violation of human rights. Thus prisoners are subjected to brutality. This inhuman practice has been going on for decades. Jails are overcrowded lacking all basic facilities. For instance, the Karachi Central Jail has 4,846 inmates against its capacity for 24,00. Many under-trial prisoners have been languishing in various jails for petty crimes for years but the police allegedly don’t present them in courts. There have been no jails reforms since Pakistan has come into being. A few days ago, the Sindh cabinet approved a policy to introduce drastic reforms to “The prison Act of 1894,” which is in place in the province. Sharing the salient features of the amendment law to be presented in the Sindh Assembly, officials said the prisoners were to be treated differently with provision of biometric system and they would also be provided with legal aid. We welcome the decision. Here we would like draw the attention of the authorities to the problem of implementation of laws. There are hosts of laws on the statute books but we all see how and how many of them are implemented. 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2019.

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