Daily Times

KHAIRPUR: The Marvi Rural Development Organization (MRDO) on Wednesday held a multi-stakeholder meeting in Sukkur to examine and resolve issues pertaining to female inmates and juveniles in 25 prisons across the Sindh province.

Reportedly, the meeting aimed to bring lawyers’ group, civil society representatives and academicians on a single platform for allowing fair trial and legal aid for the female prisoners. The MRDO representatives expressed profound concerns over the failure of the provincial government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in ensuring provision of fair trial to the female prisoners, who have been languishing, particularly in Larkana, Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Sukkur central jails for a long period of time.

Meanwhile, the meeting observed the data received from the Sindh Prisons Department under the Transparency and Right to Information Act.

According to the statistics of 25 jails, there are 210 female inmates including 49 convicted, five condemned and 156 under-trial prisoners, and 181 juvenile inmates including 167 under-trial and 14 convicted.

The MRDO representatives termed the situation as ‘inhuman and cruel’.

“MRDO intends to document and prepare a database of female inmates and link them to the concerned international human rights forums to strive for securing their rights and urge the government to fulfil its responsibility towards prisoners in accordance with International Conventions on human rights as Pakistan is also its signatory,” MRDO Programme Manager Salman Ali said, adding that the MRDO would provide legal aid, counselling to female inmates in prisons or shelter houses. He emphasised on fair trials as the only way to prevent injustice from the society. The MRDO representatives also outlined issues in the prisons including water shortage, inadequate sanitation system, lack of healthcare facilities, poor food quality etc.

They said that Hepatitis C, AIDS, Tuberculosis and many other diseases were widely reported in many prisons.

They urged the new government to formulate and implement effective measures in this regard and implement the Juvenile Justice Ordinance (JJSO, 2000) in its true spirit and essence. MRDO Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and winner of courage award Ghulam Sughra said that there were about 1,300 juveniles inmates in jails across Sindh, and they were being kept with professional criminals, against the state law.

MRDO aims to negotiate with the concerned authorities for ensuring a home-like and congenial atmosphere for juvenile inmates accordingly with their constitutional right. Furthermore, MRDO will establish a legal aid office (LAO) inside jail premises in accordance with Article 37 (d), which calls upon the state to ensure inexpensive and expeditious justice. She also pointed out sexual abuse in jails across Pakistan, where particularly children were being abused.

She expressed deep concerns over failure of police officers in producing juvenile prisoners before courts of law within 24 hours of arrest.

Published in Daily Times, August 30^th 2018.