High-security prison for province on horizon

Govt has yet to announce which district the jail will be established in

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government is working on a feasibility study to construct another high-security prison in the province.

According to documents available with The Express Tribune the cost of the project has been estimated at Rs150 million. It has yet to be decided which district the prison facility will be established in. In the past, the government had suggested the high-security prison would be set up in Swabi.

A government official privy to the development told The Express Tribune there is a pressing need to construct a separate lock-up for militants.



“The decision was initially taken during the Awami National Party government following reports of clashes between the inmates and militants at prison facilities,” he said. The official said it takes time to construct a separate prison for this purpose. “As a result, high-security zones were created at jails,” he said.

Starting from scratch

Earlier, it was decided all militants at Central Prison Peshawar would be shifted to a jail in Mardan once it was completed and handed over to the jail administration.

This lock-up was believed to be one of the first high-security prisons in the country. The decision to construct the facility was taken during the ANP government in K-P. When it seized the reins in 2013, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government decided to repurpose Central Prison Mardan and introduced multi-layered walls at the facility. However, they did not construct a new jail from scratch.

According to the government official, the facility was not designed to be a high-security prison. “However, after attacks by militants on jails in Bannu and DI Khan, we revamped the lock-up on an urgent basis,” the government official said.

He added, “Even though the prison in Mardan has been completed, we felt the need to establish a separate facility for militants. This will be a well-equipped, medium-sized prison.”

Exchange of prisoners

Central Prison Peshawar has been under repair since 2013 and the total cost has been estimated at Rs1,408 million. As per the government’s plans, inmates had to be shifted to the lock-up in Mardan. The chief minister was expected to inaugurate the jail in Mardan. However, the ceremony  was postponed.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2015.