Maintaining security: Army deployed at prison likely to be withdrawn

Official refuses to name prison but says decision is still pending

PESHAWAR:

Even though security of the province’s prisons has always been a concern for authorities, the deployment of armed forces at one is likely to be withdrawn, said well-placed sources on Sunday.  

“I cannot specifically identify the prison[s] but armed forces deployed there are likely to be pulled back; a decision is still pending,” a government official told The Express Tribune.

Requesting anonymity because of the “sensitivity of the matter”, the official said central prisons of DI Khan, Peshawar, Bannu and Haripur are high risk.

Appointment hurdles

Following intelligence reports of a possible militant attack on schools, prisons and government installations in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the government decided to recruit prison warders across the province immediately.

Over 800 warders were recruited a month ago but some officials, including senior bureaucrats and political figures, are reportedly bent upon revoking the recruitment, claiming it is “not based on merit”.

“The selection panel refused to recruit men who were named by some senior bureaucrats and even politicians (some from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf),” said an official who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

He added although the prison department prioritised merit, its senior officials are being pressurised by politicians to cancel the appointments.

According to the official, warders were recruited under Pakistan Prisons Rules on the directives of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak who had ordered immediate appointments. “After they (politicians and bureaucrats) failed to identify any mismanagement in the process, they turned their focus on the appointment not being based on tests conducted by National Testing Service (NTS) and Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency (ETEA),” he said.

The official added NTS and ETEA testing were discussed but since the exams required time, the hiring process would have been delayed. “No one was ready to take responsibility if prisons came under attack during the recruitment process,” the official said, adding the applicants who had been rejected by the selection panel were lobbying to cancel the merit-based recruitments.

When contacted, Home and Tribal Affairs Special Secretary Siraj Khan said he did not have any knowledge about any pressure to cancel recruitments of warders.

Unsafe

In the past three years there have been two major jailbreaks at the province’s central jails. In 2013, heavily armed Taliban militants stormed Central Prison DI Khan and escaped with more than 200 prisoners, including high-profile militants. In April 2012, around 400 inmates escaped from Central Prison Bannu in a similar attack led by Taliban terrorists.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2015.