Report on jail conditions submitted to SC

Federal ombudsman says jails have 88,687 inmates against capacity of 65,168

ISLAMABAD:

The Federal Ombudsman Secretariat has presented its 10th quarterly report on the progress of implementation in improving jails conditions of Pakistan in the Supreme Court.

The report said that Federal Ombudsman Syed Tahir Shahbaz held a number of meetings at the four provincial headquarters with officials concerned in all four provinces. The report stated that the Federal Ombudsman directed chief secretaries of Punjab, Sindh, K-P and Balochistan that biometric identification system integrated with all departments of the criminal administrative justice system with a common interface must be made functional on a priority at all jails.

The report stated that 88,687 prisoners were present in 116 jails of the country against 65,168 sanctioned inmates, whereas 1399 female and 1430 Juvenile prisoners were in all jails of Pakistan. The drug addicts and mentally retarded prisoners have already been segregated in all jails of Pakistan, the report said.

In this regard, a number of meetings were held with the provincial chief secretaries and other stakeholders for making the 10th quarterly implementation report on Jails Reforms Recommendations for presenting it before the Apex Court.

The report said that the Ministry of Interior had presented a progress report regarding the construction of Model Jail in Islamabad which shows that 98 per cent work on construction of boundary wall has been completed, whereas, 73% work in the construction of Admin Blocks, 42% of Male Barracks and 6% work in other infrastructure works have been completed.

The Federal Ombudsman directed the Interior Ministry to complete the entire work of the model jail on speedy lines.

According to the Federal Ombudsman report submitted to the apex court, the Sindh government has said that overcrowding in jails would ease the burden by the construction of three new jails in the current financial year in Benazirabad, Thatta and District Prison Malir, Karachi with the capacity of 1500 prisoners.

Moreover, the Sindh government has allocated Rs1010 million for the construction of new jails in Tharparker, Mithi, Umarkot, Kashmore, and Kandkot.

The K-P IG Prisons stated that 37% overcrowding of inmates has been eased due to the up-gradation of different jails in the province, the report said.

The Punjab IG Prisons said that kits for screening drug addicts in 10 different substances have been issued to all jails for screening the drug addicts in all jails of Punjab. He said that 86 water filtration plants have been made functional in Punjab jails.

The Balochistan government said that the Prisons Department has started work on the implementation of a biometric information management system with the help of UNODC which would be completed next year.

According to the Federal Ombudsman report submitted to the apex court, the Drug Rehabilitation Centers in five jails have been started with the help of ANF. The IG prisons said that 271 washrooms and 04 filtration plats have been fully functionalized in different jails. He said that a high-security jail with different barracks for the confinement of hardcore criminals/terrorists has been completed at a cost of Rs.10.26 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2021.