PESHAWAR, May 6: The government has decided to shift the  over 150-year old Central Prison to Jalozai, once famous for hosting millions of Afghan refugees, to cater to the needs of increasing number of inmates.

NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah performed the ground-breaking of the prison building, which will be having a capacity of 4,000 prisoners.

He said the prisons would be transformed into rehabilitation centres for prisoners. They would be taught and trained in various disciplines so that they could live a dignified life after their release.

The government, he said, had decided to construct the building outside the city. The successive governments had only made pledges, but failed to materialise their promises, he said.

He said expansion of cities and increase in  population also affected  the crime-rate. The old buildings had become insufficient to meet the requirements, he added.

He said the government had placed education on top of its priority list. “We are trying to bring the far-flung areas into the educational network,” he said.

Talking to newsmen, he emphasised that the turnout of voters on April 30 was unprecedented and people had reposed their confidence in the leadership of President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

He said the “non-partisan” journalists, who visited polling stations, witnessed long and unending queues outside the polling stations established everywhere in cities and towns.

He lauded the role of the Election Commission and government employees, who performed their duty on the referendum day.

The general elections would be free, fair and transparent and people would elect honest and competent representatives, he added.

Briefing a gathering of the Nazims, councillors and the area notables, Prisons Inspector-General Col Abdur Rauf explained the inhuman conditions in which inmates had been forced to live for the last 50 years.

He said the NWFP had 21 sub-jails, three central prisons, 15 district prisons and three judicial prisons.

They all were 150-year old and unable to meet the requirements, he added.

He said there were over 3,000 prisoners in Peshawar Central Prison against the capacity of 1,300. In the past, the governments had planned to shift the jail outside the city, but they failed to do so, he added.

He said a previous government had purchased 600 kanals at Azakhel in Nowshera for the construction of the prison, but later it was converted into a park.

The government had requisitioned 500 kanals at Jalozai for the University of Engineering and Technology, but now the government had decided to utilise it for the prison building, he added.

Construction and Works Secretary Brig Mohammad Safdar said the building would be completed within three years.

PPP: The Pakistan People’s Party has condemned the construction of a jail on the land requisitioned and earmarked for the establishment of an engineering and technology university in Jalozai, Nowshera.

Eng Tariq Khattak, a PPP provincial council member, said the local people had given their land for the construction of the university, and not for a jail. Earlier, the government had shifted the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education from Nowshera to Mardan and multiplied the miseries of people, he added.

He said the people would resist the construction of prison   on the land earmarked for the university. The farmers had given the agriculture land for the promotion of education, he added.

He demanded of the government to establish the university at the vacant campus of Islamic Jihad University at Jalozai.

Eng Khattak urged the government to provide drinking water to the residents of Jalozai.