The Punjab Home Department has issued the standard operating procedure (SOPs) and criteria for prisoners remission cases.
According to the spokesperson for the Home Department, remission refers to a system under which a prisoner is eligible for release before completing his sentence. There are 5 categories of remission in prison, labour, good conduct, education, donating blood and special remissions.
According to the notification issued by the home department Punjab, a good character and conduct means that the prisoner is serving his/her sentence in accordance with the prison rules. A prisoner with good conduct will get 15 days on completion of one year of imprisonment with labor and 15 days on completion of three years with labor along with an additional 30 days.
Similarly, prisoners who have improved their educational qualifications during captivity will get remission in their punishment according to the scale. Prisoners who do Matriculation, Intermediate, Graduation or Masters during imprisonment will get 6 months to 10 months remission.
According to the rules, prisoners who completely memorised the holy Qur’an and read it’s translation while in prison will be pardoned from 6 months to 2 years. Prisoners doing technical courses like electrician, motor binding, beautician will get 1 month remission. The notification stipulates that after receiving the result card of the examination, the superintendent of Jails will forward the remission case within 7 days and the DIG Jails in another 3 days. Similarly, IG Prisons will have to issue notification of remission of sentence on the basis of educational qualification in the second decade of every month.
The IG Prisons will send a certificate to the Home Department every month that there are no pending cases of remission. The third category of remission is the special remission. The amnesty granted by the competent authority on different festivals is called special remission. According to the Prison rules, the superintendent Jail can grant 30 days, IG Jail 60 days, home secretary 90 days and the federal government can grant special remission for 60 days.
A remission issued by the President of Pakistan takes precedence over all laws under Article 45 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Prisoners who donate blood are also entitled to remissions. According to prison rules, a convicted prisoner is entitled to a 30-day remission for donating blood. A gap of at least 6 months is required between two blood donations. A prisoner serving a sentence of more than 5 years can donate blood up to 4 times. Similarly, imprisonment with labor is also entitled to remission.
According to the Prison rules, prisoners sentenced for less than 4 months of imprisonment with labor will not be entitled to remission. Prisoners whose sentence changed from death sentence to life imprisonment will be granted remission as per minimum scale.
Remission for labor will be granted four times in a year, for 3 months each time and will be registered on the same day. The notification has made it clear that those convicted of terrorism, sabotage and anti-state activities will not be entitled to any remission. Similarly, if the prisoner has to serve even a day extra sentence due to delay in registration of remission, action will be taken under PEEDA against Jail superintendent and deputy superintendent Judicial.