Daily Times

Under-trial prisoners (UTPs) or pre-conviction detainees are those prisoners, who are detained in prisons but their trials are in progress and they have not yet been convicted of the offence by any court of law. Pre-trial detainees on the other hand refer to those prisoners who are detained during pending investigations and trial courts have not taken cognizance of their cases or their trials have not yet been commenced formally in trial courts. Prison authorities do not differentiate between pre-trial detainees and under-trial prisoners. Therefore, it is generally perceived that the term under-trial prisoners would include both under-trial prisoners and pre-trial detainees. Moreover, the detainees who have been convicted by the lower courts, but are awaiting decisions on their appeals in the provincial High Courts or the Supreme Court of Pakistan are not included in the list of UTPs.

According to Rule 3(vii) of Pakistan Prison Rules of 1978, juvenile prisoner means a person who had not attained the age of 18 years. In criminal justice system, the age of accused is reckoned on the day of commission of offence but jail administration has nothing to do with the date of commission of offence. For the purpose of segregation, and admission in prison, age of the accused is computed on the day of his admission in jail. Jail authorities conduct the medical examination ofan accused or convict person upon his/her entering in jail and the age of accused or convict person is primarily recorded on the basis of jail authority’s observation on physical appearance of accused or convict person and not through any authentic or forensic methods.

In April 2018, Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) published statistics on its website about the prison population of Pakistan. According to LJCP’s statistics, the total population of prisoners in all the prisons of four provinces of Pakistan was 80,139, whereas combined authorized official capacity of keeping the prisoners was 56,628. Thus, prison occupancy rate was stood at 142 percent, which interpreted as 42 percent overcrowding rate in all the prisons of four provinces of Pakistan. Out of total 80,139 prisoners, 16,696 UTPs were detained for more than one year, 6320 UTPs were detained for more than two years, 2,736 UTPs were detained for more than three years and 502 UTPs were detained for more than five years in prisons of Pakistan. There were 28 juvenile pre-trial prisoners, who were waiting for their trials due to non-submission of challans in their cases and all of them were male and detained in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) jails. Similarly, 1081 out of total 80,139 prisoners were juvenile UTPs, which included 16 female juvenile UTPs, 14 detained in Punjab and 2 in KP jails. 118 out of total 80,139 prisoners were juvenile convicted prisoners and all of them were male.

On 01 October 2017, all Home Departments except in former FATA shared the official data about the prison population of Pakistan. According to this legitimate data, UTPs form 66 percent of the total prison population of the country. The total number of UTPs in Pakistan’s prisons was 55, 426, which was even higher than the combined official capacity of 53,744 prisoners in all the prisons of Pakistan as on 01 October 2017. This implies that high pre-conviction detention rate in Pakistan is a major source of overcrowding in its prisons. The data further reveals that there were 1343 juvenile prisoners in 112 prisons of Pakistan and 1209 or 90 percent of them were under-trial prisoners. The proportion of juvenile UTPs among total population of juvenile prisoners in Pakistan is therefore much higher than both the national adult male under-trial prisoners rate (66 percent) and adult female under-trial prisoners rate (68 percent).

Keeping a juvenile as an under-trial prisoner is one of the most unjust and degrading treatments that can be given to a human being. Some juvenile UTPs are not even found guilty at the conclusion of trial and suffer amidst hardened criminals in jails for no fault of their own and after being released from the jails, they might become habitual offenders

The following graph shows the statistics on 01 October 2017 about total number of juvenile prisoners and proportion of juvenile UTPs among them in each province/administrative territory of Pakistan. The statistics in the graph show that Sindh and Punjab are on top with 93 and 91 percent of juvenile UTPs respectively followed by KP and Balochistan at 88 and 87 percent respectively, and finally GB with 83 percent. AJK did not have any juvenile prisoners.

Ratio of Juvenile UTPs in Total Juvenile Prisoners Population in Each Province/Administrative Territory of Pakistan as of 01 October 2017

The data in the above graph shows the high pre-conviction detention rate of juvenile prisoners in all the provinces/administrative territories of Pakistan, which is one of the causes of overcrowding and maltreating of juveniles in prisons of Pakistan.

The Juvenile Justice System Act of 2018 provides the time limit of six months for completing the trial in cases of juvenile offenders. Section 6(5) of JJSA 2018 says that where the juvenile court is of the opinion that the delay in the trial of a juvenile has not been occasioned by an act or omission of such juvenile or any other person acting on his behalf or in exercise of any right or privilege under any law for the time being in force, such juvenile shall be released on bail if he has been detained for a continuous period exceeding six months and whose trial has not been completed. Courts normally do not observe the prescribe time limit for completion of trial in juvenile cases and resultantly juveniles are facing pre-conviction detention in jails. Therefore, the juvenile UTPs who are detained in prisons or in police custody for a continuous period exceeding six months and whose trials have not been completed, such juvenile accused persons must be released on bail with immediate effect. By doing this exercise, pre-conviction detention and overcrowding rate in prisons will be reduced.

Keeping a juvenile as an under-trial prisoner is one of the most unjust and degrading treatment that can be given to human being. Some juvenile UTPs are not even found guilty at the conclusion of trial and suffer amidst hardened criminals in jails for no fault of their own and after releasing from the jails, they might become habitual offenders. The childhood and innocence of these children is lost forever.

The writer is Advocate High Court / Human Rights Lawyer Based in Islamabad