Press Gallery Prison laws set to be modernised

Rights of inmates to be protected as per international standards

LAHORE:

Punjab has begun the process of reforming the laws of the British era, as a draft has been prepared to change the 100-year-old prison laws and manual.

Amendments to the basic provisions of the Prisons Act 1894 have been proposed and all the 1,250 rules of the prison manual are set to be changed.

With respect to human rights, the prison laws are being reformed in line with international agreements, commitments and standards, which include facilities for women, children and inmates on death row along with protection of their rights. According to Punjab Law Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja, work on the new Prison Act and Jail Manual has been completed and now it will be taken to the provincial assembly.

"We have also updated the Cooperatives Act 1925 and now the cooperatives department will only be able to work to protect the interests of farmers," he said. He maintained that the Punjab Cooperative Bank will be brought to the level at par with the Bank of Punjab.

Under a new law, trillions of rupees worth of properties of the Liquidation Board will be retrieved from the occupier mafia. The Punjab government will be able to spend the money obtained from their auction on public projects. All the funds of the Liquidation Board will be deposited in the Cooperative Bank that will be run on a commercial basis.

The minister said it had emerged that several government departments in Punjab had not made their rules in the past 15 years. The Punjab Law Department has now made it mandatory for all government departments to make their own rules within six months of the passage of any law and if they do not make the rules within the given time, the law will become ineffective.

He said the Trust Act 1872 has been changed after 148 years. There are currently 600 laws enforced in Punjab and they have been updated online. For the period between 1908 and 1955, three volumes of the Punjab Code of Laws have been published so far, while work on the fourth volume is in progress.

The Punjab Law Department says regarding its performance during the past two years under the current government that the acts of seven universities in the province were approved. A total of 63 bills were passed by the Punjab Assembly, while the Tahafuz Bunyad Islam Bill is still with the Chief Minister's House and has not been sent to the Governor's House. An attempt is being made to reach a consensus on the bill. Meanwhile, PML-N has submitted a requisition to convene a session of Punjab Assembly to discuss the arrest of opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif, the law and order situation and inflation. Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has decided to summon the session on October 9 on the requisition of the opposition. The government will also bring its business in the session. At present, six government bills are in the process of being approved by the house and the government can get them approved during the session.

A meeting of the Privileges Committee of Punjab Assembly continued for three days. The secretary colonies did not attend the meeting and the members expressed displeasure over the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2020.