Convicts exploiting K-P’s probation law

Released on a promise to appear, offenders are often untraceable or have moved abroad

PESHAWAR:

The law allows the release, of those incarcerated, on probation provided that a surety and a promise to appear before their concerned probation officers is given - many, however, go missing.

In the past, there were few crimes under which release on probation was possible but ever since the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government relaxed the law, convicts can now attain probation after getting a surety bond. Under the current law, the court authorizes the release of those convicted on probation subject to several conditions. One of which is weekly, fortnightly, or monthly visits - as per the court’s choosing - to their assigned probation officer.

In case the offenders do not appear before their probation officer, the officer immediately informs the directorate regarding the offender’s violation.

However, the Express Tribune learnt from official sources that individuals who are let out on a promise to appear either run away from the addresses they provide or move abroad during their probationary period.

“There are many cases in which convicts escaped. Many flew outside the country and inquiries are yet to be carried out against the escaped convicts,” an official at the directorate told the Express Tribune.

The icing on the cake is that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) Directorate of Reclamation and Probation is out of ideas on how to round up the convicts who have escaped, as per sources, with some alleging that the department’s negligence was actually connivance with the offenders. A senior government official, who requested anonymity keeping in mind the nature of the issue, told the Express Tribune that several letters were written to the directorate in many cases in order to initiate inquiries against the escaped convicts but the department had turned a blind eye to all such requests.

Citing a recent case, the official informed that prisoners went missing while being moved from Nowshera to Peshawar and it was later found that the prisoners could not be traced at their homes and had reportedly left the country. “As per rule 24 of the Probation of Offender rules 1961, the director shall initiate inquiry against the escapee probationer,” the official informed, alleging that an inquiry was requested by the concerned probation officer into the matter but the letter reportedly went missing.

When inquired about the missing prisoners, Director Reclamation and Probation K-P, Mualim Jan, who has been leading the department since 2005, refuted the allegations stating that the department has never aided any convict. “Yes, we have had cases of escape, like when 12 convicts went missing but we brought it into the notice of the concerned court which had ordered the convicts’ release on probation,” he said.

However, official sources alleged that in this particular case even though probationary release orders came from the court, the probation officers had been negligent in questioning the sureties provided.

Jan, questioning the allegation, said that it was not the department’s domain to ask about the sureties but that of the court which released the convicts.

“Probationers who fail to appear before their assigned officer are declared defaulters. There is little else we can do apart from this when the police come to tell us that the convict released on probation is not at his or her home,” Jan told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2021.