Pakistan

PM hails reforms committee for finalising report ensuring prisoners’ rights

Reforms would guarantee greater public safety and rehabilitation of prisoner, tweets Premier Imran Khan

Our Correspondent February 11, 2020

Reforms would guarantee greater public safety and rehabilitation of prisoner, tweets Premier Imran Khan. PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has congratulated his team for finalising a report on prison reform package which aims to improve worsening condition of inmates across the country.

Last year, the premier had constituted the Prime Minister’s Prisoners Reforms Committee (PPAC) under the chairmanship of renowned lawyer Barrister Syed Ali Zafar to examine the prevailing conditions in Pakistan’s prisons and recommend measures to reform the system.

The PPAC is a high-powered body comprising Member of National Assembly (MNA) Maleeka Ali Bukhari, Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Aleem Khan, federal interior secretary, home secretaries and inspectors general (IG) prisons of Sindh, Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, chief commissioner Islamabad and Barrister Haya Emaan Zahid as its members.

"Congratulations to Ali Zafar & mbrs [members] of PM's Prisoners Aid Committee, which finalised its reform package report for effective prison reform," PM Imran wrote on his official Twitter handle on Tuesday.

Under-trial prisoners ‘victims of slow judicial system’

He went on to say that the reforms would ensure the greater public safety and rehabilitation of prisoners "on the principle that a prison sentence does not imply deprivation of human rights".

Congratulations to Ali Zafar & mbrs of PM's Prisoners Aid Committee, which finalised its reform package report for effective prison reform. It will ensure greater public safety & rehab of prisoners on the principle that a prison sentence does not imply deprivation of human rights
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) February 11, 2020

The PPAC report, which was submitted with the prime minister earlier this month, has held the ‘sluggishness of the judicial system’ responsible for the imprisonment of 48,347 under trial prisoners, which is 65 per cent of the prison population in Pakistan.

In order to reduce the number of under trial prisoners, the PPAC has proposed that bail provisions be amended to enable the easy release of under trial prisoners in cases carrying less than three years’ imprisonment.