KARACHI, April 21: A 23-year-old Ugandan woman, who completed her prison term in July last year, and her baby, born in jail, were finally released on Thursday by the prison authorities for deportation to their country. Asimwi Gift, who was two-month pregnant when arrested in late 2003 for drug smuggling, gave birth to a baby boy on April 7, 2004 in the Civil Hospital. She completed her time in jail on July 29, but she could not be released as her baby did not have a travel document, which was to be issued by Ugandan authorities.
She was scheduled to leave for Uganda a flight late in Thursday night.
She told Dawn that she had written many letters to her husband in Uganda, but he never replied. The woman has had no contact with him for the last eight months. “My husband did nothing for me while I kept on languishing in jail”, she said.
The Legal Aid Office, a non-governmental organization headed by Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid, assisted the woman to get the travel document issued by the Ugandan mission in New Dehli. The LAO also arranged the travel expenses on the deportation through philanthropists.
The authorities at the Karachi’s Special Prison for Women said there were three more foreign women with newborns in the prison in spite of having completed their prison terms during the last few months.
Sander Okoror of Nigeria, Aynura Yaqub of Azerbaijan and Adama Camara of Guinea were also arrested like Asimwe for attempting to smuggle heroin out of Pakistan during 2003-04. All of them were pregnant at the time of their arrest and they delivered their babies during detention in Karachi’s Civil Hospital.
The spokeswoman for LAO told Dawn that the travel documents of the babies of two foreign women had been issued by their respective missions and that they would be leaving for their countries shortly.
The LAO was established by the Karachi Women Prisoners Welfare Society with
the assistance of the Committee for the Welfare of Women Prisoners, headed by Justice Zahid.
The CWWP and the KWPWS were formed to provide legal assistance to women prisoners free of cost; to secure the services of competent counsel to provide legal representation; to streamline procedures and improve conditions of all jails; to assist in the management of women’s jail to ensure the welfare of both under-trial and convicted women prisoners and to ensure the welfare of the children living with their mothers.
The spokeswoman said that over 125 women prisoners had so far acquired the services of the LAO to present their cases in the trial courts. There are three fulltime and two visiting attorneys at the LAO, which is also maintaining a comprehensive database on all women prisoners.
According to Justice Nasir Aslam Zahir, it would have been proper for the authorities to initiate the process of release of such prisoners at least three months before the date of their release so that they would not languish in jail for no crime.
There are 65 foreign women convicts, mainly from the poverty-stricken African countries, in the women prison. Of them 31 are from Nigeria, six from Tanzania, five from South Africa, three from Guinea, two each from Thailand, the Philippines, Mali and Cameroon, and one each from Indonesia, the Netherlands, Liberia, Azerbaijan and Uganda. They all were convicted on drug trafficking charges by the special anti-narcotics court, which sentenced them to different terms from two years to 10 years. The Dutch woman prisoner, Bishesar Helen, was sentenced in 2004 to a 10-year term and Elizabeth Njeri Kamu of Kenya and Diana Slivia Mingrum were handed down seven-year term each in 2001.
Besides, there are 25 other foreign women prisoners still being tried on drug charges. Eighteen of them were held on drug charges during 2004 alone. They include nine Nigerian women, five Guineans and one each from China, Libya, Ghana, Uganda, Lagos and Bangladesh.
