The plight of women, children and elderly people in our prisons across Pakistan has largely been ignored by all concerned authorities as well as Human Right movements, the policymakers, the stakeholders of criminal justice system, embryonic civil society and the media. As a result, these vulnerable people are particularly marginalized within an already substandard living environment. Efforts have been put in practice in the civilized world to revise the penal systems to better accommodate women and children, the issue unfortunately receives little to no attention in the eyes of our ruling elite and the policymakers and those who execute it. As elsewhere, prison administration remains a decidedly male-and adult-dominated milieu.
HASHIM ABRO,
Islamabad, November 1.