SUKKUR, July 18: The first ever female ward in the Sukkur Central Prison was inaugurated by the inspector general of prisons, Sindh, Nisar Ahmad, on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion, the Mr Ahmad said it was the duty of the government to provide every facility to the prisoners. He emphasized the need for community involvement in this regard.

He hailed the DIG, Sukkur range, for deputing one woman sub-inspector and two woman constables to take female prisoners to court in respect of their cases.

Sukkur District Nazim Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, while speaking on the occasion, said the district government would cooperate with the jail administration to provide facilities to prisoners and directed the EDO, health, to assign a woman doctor to visit the women ward daily.

District Coordination Officer Nisar Ahmad Siddiqi said efforts would be made to create good atmosphere in the jail and make the prisoners good citizens as they were the integral part of the society.

Earlier, the superintendent of the Central Prison, Javed Zamir Farooqi, informed that 28 women prisoners had been shifted from Larkana to Sukkur.

Meanwhile, the inspector general of prisons, Nisar Ahmad, while talking to newsmen here on Thursday, said the Sindh government had decided to establish judiciary blocks in all jails in the province in order to avoid difficulties in taking hardened criminals from jail to court.

He disclosed that new jails were being constructed in Shikarpur, Dadu and Badin.

He admitted that there were some corrupt practices in the jails of the province and said two superintendents of jails were suspended when cases of corruption were proved against them. He said departmental action was also taken against 150 other staff and several jail staff were put behind the bars on the charge of supplying narcotics to the prisoners.