September 12, 2003	Friday	Rajab 14, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 11: The Parliamentarians Commission for Human Rights (PCHR) is preparing to move the National Assembly next month, seeking amendments to two laws for improving conditions in prisons.

The PCHR’s research cell is, at present, examining the Prisons Act 1884 and the Foreigners Act 1976 to work out the proposed amendments which are to be presented to the national legislature as private bills on behalf of the 50-member commission.

PCHR chairperson MNA Riaz Khan Fatiana told Dawn here on Wednesday the decision had been necessitated as a sequel to a visit to Lahore’s central prison at Kot Lakhpat and district jail on Ferozepur Road where conditions are “pathetic”. He said the prisoners lacked hygienic living and health facilities and the attitude of the jail staff was “inhuman and uncivilized”.

Prisoners rights were being violated, they faced hardships even in meeting their relatives, which is their basic right.

Mr Fatiana said the plight of foreign prisoners was even worse. More than one hundred prisoners, mostly Indians, continued to languish in jails after serving their terms. They were being kept in prisons as “internees”; they could not be released because they had no place in Pakistan to go.

A majority of such “internees” were arrested for minor offences like crossing the border inadvertently. Another sizable number of those could not afford travel expenses.

One major reason for seeking amendments to the Foreigners Act, according to Mr Fatiana, was that the law did not explicitly explain a procedure for the process of political asylum which, he said, was now necessary in view of the changing world scenario.