|
|
|
| May 7, 2006 | Sunday | Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1427 |
MPs report human rights violations in Adiala Jail
ISLAMABAD, May 6: A parliamentarians’ fact-finding mission has reported “massive human rights violations” in Adiala Jail after a surprise visit to the penitentiary in Rawalpindi.
A press statement of the Parliamentarians’ Commission for Human Rights (PCHR) said on Saturday that during its unannounced visit the mission detected cases of physical and mental torture, inhuman and degrading treatment of inmates and absence of basic facilities in the jail.
In their report on the visit the mission members threatened that unless the concerned authorities improved the situation in the jail “on emergency basis”, they would raise the issue in the parliament.
They also demanded that the government provide funds for changing prisons into ‘reform places’ rather than being places for torture and inhuman treatment as they found the Adiala Jail to be.
#PCHR sent its mission to Adiala after receiving complainants from the jail inmates, NGOs and media. It comprised Executive Director PCHR Kashmala Tariq, Syed Javed Ali Shah, Haroon Ihsan Paracha MNA. Shafique Chaudhry acted as chief coordinator of the commission.
It said the mission visited the punishment cells, or Kasuri cells in jail parlance, A-class barracks, the jail hospital and women ward unaccompanied by the jail staff.
Only DIG prisons Nadeem Kokab from Lahore accompanied the team during the visit.
Mission members interviewed the inmates in the absence of the jail officials to preclude post-visit victimisation of the prisoners.
#They observed that jail authorities used coercion in a regular manner to run the routine affairs to maintain law and order on the jail premises. Most prisoners showed marks of physical torture on their bodies to the delegates.
They also noted that the torture victims were rarely provided medical treatment.
Overcrowding was in evidence everywhere in the Adiala Jail and appeared to be the fundamental problem facing the inmates and the jail authorities.
Unlike other big jails in the country, Adiala does not have separate barracks for the convicted and the under-trail prisoners. And a ban ordered by the Supreme Court on remissions was contributing to growth in the jail population, according to the mission.
During its visit of A-class barracks, the mission was briefed by two detained members of parliament, Khwaja Saad Rafique and former speaker National Assembly Makhdoom Yousaf Raza Gillani briefed the problems in the jail.
They accused the jail authorities of inflicting worst kind of torture on the inmates. They said during the recent hunger strike by prisoners, the officials treated the protesters in a very degrading manner and alleged ringleaders were still facing torture.
#When questioned, DIG prisons Nadeem Kokab and the jail superintendent told the PCHR mission that the jail was built for 1,964 inmates but was hosting today 5,400 prisoners.
There were only 200 wardens and officials, the staff was underpaid and no basic facilities existed for them, the officials said. One of them was quoted as saying that “the mafia inside the jail is very active and whenever we launch a campaign against them they engineer a media trial against us.
“This is the reason we are unable to remove drugs and the culture of impunity from the jail,” the jail superintendent told the mission.
|
|
|
|
