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KARACHI, Aug 10: At least 12 prisoners — nine male and three female — kept in different jails of the province have tested HIV/Aids positive in a province-wide screening of inmates ordered by the IG Jails, Mohammad Yamin Khan.
In a statement issued here on Thursday, the IG said he had ordered the screening through blood test at all 20 jails in the province.
According to the results, 12 prisoners tested HIV/Aids positive and 571 were drug addicts. According to the statement, six of the HIV/Aids patients are in the Karachi Central Prison and three in the Malir Jail. The female patients are in the Women Jail.
The statement said that the prisoners found indulged in using drugs were in the jails of Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Khairpur, , Sanghar, Dadu, Shikarpur, Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah, besides Malir and juvenile jails in Karachi.
The IG said that the Prisons Department had already requested the provincial Health Department to arrange for their immediate treatment. Mr Yamin maintained that necessary treatment at the jail level was being provided to ailing inmates.
Sindh Minister for Women Development Dr Saeeda Malik on Thursday chaired the 7th meeting of the committee constituted by the provincial government for the welfare of the female prisoners languishing in various jails.
Speaking on the occasion, she asked officials of her development to pursue the summary pending before the Finance Department seeking to including representatives from the leading NGOs, besides enhancing suitably the representation of Finance Department or AG Sindh to facilitate smooth and regular financial arrangements.
The summary also proposes modalities to operate the revolving fund of Rs20 million that the Sindh government has earmarked under the relevant directive of the Supreme Court.
The funds have been extended to the Women Development Department to meet the expenses incurred in women prisoners’ wellbeing and support the needy among them, besides helping those who had completed their prison term but were unable to rehabilitate themselves for want of financial assistance.
Dr Malik directed the officials to invite and circulate comments of the committee members on the issue of female prisoners’ inability to pay off the Deeyat and, as such, were languishing in jails despite having served their full term. She also asked them to ensure provision of additional equipment and furniture to the computer section of the women prison.
The minister told the officials to ensure that the six women prisoners from African countries whose term would complete on Sept 31, 2007 had their travel documents arranged in coordination with the departments/agencies concerned.
The Women Development Department has already released a sum of Rs0.25 million from the revolving funds for the release of these prisoners. The amount is in addition to Rs0.294 million released earlier to pay off the fine imposed on nine convicted women prisoners to ensure their release.
Earlier, Secretary of the department Subhan Memon informed the meeting about the Sindh chief secretary’s inspection note, and said that a sum of Rs44,170 was needed to meet the requirements with regard to the payment of fine imposed on six women convicts kept in the Special Prison Karachi who were to be released by September 31, 2007.
The secretary stated that as per the list received from the jail authorities of Hyderabad, Larkana and Sukkur, no case of a female convict was mature up to December.
The committee members proposed induction of Kashif Hanif advocate as co-opted member and screening of foreign women prisoners for HIV/Aids test by the jail authorities at the time of their arrest.—Agencies
