Prison facilities: Gallows to be set up at Central Jail

‘Convicts on death row have to be taken to District Jail at great risk’.

FAISALABAD: Gallows would be set up at the Central Jail to execute convicts on death row held there instead of transferring them to other facilities.

Central Jail Spokesperson Athar Ali said the government had ordered the construction of gallows at the facility in 2012. He said the project had not been completed due to lack of funds. Ali said over 400 convicts were being held in the jail. He said any convict whose death warrant had been signed had to be shifted to the District Jail to be executed at great risk and cost. Ali said six convicts had been transferred to the prison after Army Chief Raheel Sharif had signed their black warrants. These included Dr Usman, Arshad Meherban, Ghulam Sarwar Bhatti, Zubair Ahmed, Rashid Qureshi and Akhlaq Ahmed. He said the Prisons Department had to make foolproof security arrangements at both the prisons to ensure their safe transfer. Ali said the department had decided to set up gallows at the Central Jail in view of the great risk and cost involved in securely transferring convicts from one facility to another. He said the project would be completed as soon as funds for it were released.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2014.