12 November 2004	Friday	28 Ramazan 1425

LAHORE, Nov 11: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi announced a two-month remission for all prisoners in Punjab jails while setting free around 330 from the Camp Jail here on Thursday.

This was in addition to two-month remission announced by President Gen Musharraf for all prisoners in the country, he said at a ceremony held on the premises of the jail. Lahore Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood and senior officials were also present on the occasion.

Of the released prisoners, 131 were those whose fines or amount of Diyat have been paid by philanthropists and organizations. They included nine women and six children.

One of them carried death sentence but was released because of the payment of Rs400,000 Diyat by philanthropists. Another prisoner was in jail since 1999 for failure to pay Rs200,000 Diyat.

The rest of the prisoners freed on Thursday were involved in petty crime.

The chief minister said the prisoners were being freed on the 27th of Ramazan to enable them spend Eid with their families. But before freedom, they should pledge that they would never commit any crime again and instead lead an honourable and peaceful life.

"You will not be corrected unless you feel in your hearts that you were imprisoned because of a wrong step, facing hardships for yourself and causing tremendous troubles for your families. You must realize that commission of crime by a single person leaves a negative impact not only on his family but also on society," he said.

The chief minister thanked the philanthropists for securing the release of those who could not pay for their freedom. "I had also released many prisoners last year," he added.

He said unlike the past regimes, the PML government in the Punjab implemented jail reforms in letter and spirit while keeping in view the problems being faced by both the jail authorities and prisoners.

"This is for the time that a government has considered prisoners human beings. We sat with doctors to assess the necessary dietary needs of a human being and then allocated an additional Rs160 million for providing standard meals to prisoners," he said.

Similarly, the government was arranging vocational training for the women and juvenile prisoners so that they could earn through positive means after their release and become law abiding citizens.

Mr Elahi said the government had also enhanced budget for the medical facilities and medicines for the prisoners. "I have even ordered a proper medical examination of all prisoners at the time of their entry in jails so that we can provide them proper medical cover during their imprisonment."

He said the jail reforms by the provincial government had started giving results. He asked the prisons minister and the IG to work hard for completing all initiatives taken under the reform programme within the given timeframe.

Later, the chief minister distributed packets of gifts among the released prisoners.

Prisons Minister Saeed Akbar Niwani mentioned different facilities being provided by the government to the prisoners.

He said the government had decided to construct more jails to accommodate load of prisoners. Of them two were near completion in Toba Tek Singh and Vehari. Additional barracks too were being built in the existing jails for the purpose, he added.

Prisons IG Salahuddin Niazi said there were 209 prisoners in Punjab who could not secure there release because of their inability to pay Diyat (fine).

He said 54,000 prisoners were being kept in Punjab jails as against their capacity of 17,000 prisoners. This was creating a lot of problems, he maintained.

Mr Niazi said to address this issue the government had decided to construct 12 new jails. All jails had been given additional security staff at a cost of Rs90 million.