Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Wafaqi Mohtasib Syed Tahir Shahbaz on Tuesday stressed urgent measures for improving the plight of women and children detainees in Pakistani jails.

He was presiding over a meeting of parliamentarians, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representatives, philanthropists, legal experts and senior functionaries of concerned government departments.

Syed Tahir Shahbaz said that multiple long term measures were required for improving the jail environment and efforts should accord due priority to the conditions of women and children detainees. He expressed the hope that fresh initiative with the support of UNICEF and civil society will succeed in introducing significant reforms in the existing prison conditions to bring it as par with acceptable civilised standards.

He said that the initiative launched in collaboration with UNICEF by the national commissioner for children was in fact continuation of the earlier efforts of the Prison Reforms Committee, set up in pursuance of the Supreme Court directive which had after extensive deliberations and visits highlighted the pathetic jail conditions and recommended workable measures for bringing the required changes in prisons.

He expressed the hope that the eminent participants from legal fraternity, business groups, parliamentarians and civil society members would come up with valuable suggestions and recommendations which will be helpful in providing relief to the suffering of women and child prisoners and improve the prison environment.

The national commissioner on child rights together with UNICEF and other stakeholders has worked out a phased programme for improving the living conditions in jails, especially of women and children detainees. The committee to begin with has selected four jails of the country ie Central Jail Quetta, Haripur Jail, Faisalabad Borstal Jail and Central Jail Karachi and after proper assessment of the conditions and facilities needed would focus on provision of essential supplies to women and children, provision of health and education within the jail premises and provision of psychological, social and legal assistance to the women and children inmates. The upgradation, renovation and refurbishment of the relevant portions of the above jails would also be undertaken under the new initiative. Capacity building of jail staff and up gradation of existing prison manual also figure on list of reform measures to be introduced under the plan.

Published in Daily Times, April 4^th 2018.