ISLAMABAD:The Federal Ombudsman Secretariat has presented its 10th quarterly implementation report on the progress of implementation in improving jails conditions of Pakistan in the Supreme of Pakistan in a Suo Motu Case No.1 of 2016. The report was presented by the Secretary WMS Ejaz Ahmed Khan.
The report said that the Federal Ombudsman Syed Tahir Shahbaz held number of meetings at the four provincial headquarters with the Chief Secretaries, Home Departments and IG Prisons of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhaw, Sindh and Baluchistan in the matter.
The report stated that the Federal Ombudsman has directed all the Provincial Chief Secretaries of Punjab, Sindh, KP and Balochistan that biometric identification system integrated with all departments of criminal administrative justice system with a common interface must be functionalized on 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.
In this regard a number of meetings were held with the Chief Secretaries of four provinces and other stakeholders for making 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 construction of Model Jail in Islamabad which shows that 98% work on construction of boundary wall has been completed, whereas, 73% work in construction of Admin Blocks, 42% of Male Barracks and 6% work in other infrastructure works have been completed.
The Ombudsman directed the Interior Ministry to complete the entire work of the model jail on speedy lines.
The Sindh government has informed that overcrowding in jails would ease the burden by construction of three new jails in the current financial year i.e. in Benazirabad, Thatta and District Prison Malir, Karachi with the capacity of 1500 prisoners. Moreover, Sindh government has allocated Rs.1010 million for construction of new jails in Tharparker, Mithi, Umarkot, Kashmore, and Kandkot.
The Sindh Prisons and Correctional Service have successfully started Prisons Management Information System which will monitor and verify the prisoner’s identity through Biometric Identification System, which has also been linked with Police and NADRA on 2nd November, 2021.
The IG Prisons KP stated that 37% overcrowding of inmates has been eased due to up-gradation of different jails in KP. He also said the district jails in Swat and Hangu would be completed in the current financial year. He informed that 56 visits of DOCs, 15 visits of Provincial Oversight Committees (POC) were made and five meetings of the POC were convened to improve the jail’s conditions in KP.
The IG Prisons Punjab informed that kits for screening of drug addicts in 10 different substances have been issued to all jails for screening the drug addicts in all jails of Punjab.
He informed that 86 water filtration plants have been functionalized in Punjab jails with the help of ADP schemes and NGOs.
The Punjab Prisons department has signed an MOU with NADRA and PITB and the work has been started on speedy lines for implementation of biometric management system with all departments of criminal justice system in Punjab. The Balochistan government informed that the Prisons department has started work on implementation of biometric information management system with the help of UNODC which would be completed next year.
The Drug Rehabilitation Centers in five jails have been started with the help of ANF. The IG prisons informed that 271 wash rooms and 04 filtration plats have been fully functionalized in different jails. He informed that a High Security Jail with different barracks for confinement of hard core criminals/terrorists has been completed with a cost of Rs.10.26 millions has been completed.
