LAHORE - The overcrowded Punjab jails could cause more deaths of jailbirds as happened a couple of days ago in Camp Jail Lahore and last year in Kot Lakhpat Jail when inmates were tortured to death.
Statistics available with The Nation revealed that presently two times more prisoners were being kept in Punjab jails against approved strength.
Against the authorised capacity of 21,527 inmates, all 32 Punjab jails are housing more than 52,000 prisoners.
Thousands of prisoners are waiting for trial as the prison population is growing owing to an increasing crime rate in Pakistan. Instead of reforming the criminals and making them good citizens and human beings, the prison system in the country is proving a breeding ground for nurturing outlaws.
In Camp Jail of the provincial metropolis which is widely known as golden duck for corrupt officers is also overcrowded. An insider said that approved capacity of Camp Jail is 1,050 prisoners but currently there are more than 3,000 prisoners in jail.
An officer of the jail said, “We brought the matter into the notice of every district and sessions judge whenever he visits the said jail but no action has so far been taken to solve the problem”.
This sorry state of affairs is due to a sluggish system of dispensing off criminal justice. Complicated procedural laws often prove too obscure for a layman to understand. It merits mentioning here that there is only one training institute for prisons staff in the whole country. As per a Punjab University report published in 2011, inefficiency and corruption is adversely affecting the prison system in Pakistan. Prisons are plagued with administrative and financial problems. Security devices are either not functioning or missing altogether.
As per a report, first prisons reform programme was introduced in Pakistan in the 1950s under the chairmanship of Colonel Salamat Ullah, who was a former inspector general of prisons for UP in pre-partitioned India. Later, different reform committees were constituted by the federal government to redress prisoners’ grievances. The recommendations of these committees were invariably given official approval but these could not be implemented, mainly because of financial constraints or lack of political will.
2 PASSENGERS ARRESTED AT AIRPORT
FIA Immigration authorities on Wednesday arrested two passengers trying to travel on fake documents from Allama Iqbal International Airport (AIIAP), said an officer of Immigration.
He said that Imran Kafatullah resident of Shahdra, Lahore was intercepted by immigration officer and during travel documents checking his visa for France was found fake and pages of his Pakistani passport were also changed.
Other passenger Raj Muhammad Khan resident of Bunair KPK was trying to board a Thailand bound flight but his passport was found tampered and pages of his passport were changed.
Both the passengers were arrested by FIA and sent to Anti Human Trafficking Cell (AHTC) for further action. During preliminary inquiry Raj Muhammad told the FIA officer that he had paid Rs. 50,000 to Umar Haq a travel agent to get that visa and passport.