May 10, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 4, 1429

KARACHI, May 9: Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Ali Mirza has pledged revolutionary steps to bring about jail reforms to increase the security environment in prisons and upgrade facilities for inmates.

He was presiding over a meeting that discussed the status and progress of ongoing development schemes undertaken by the prisons department here on Friday.

The meeting was attended by the secretaries of home and finance departments, IG prisons, DIG headquarters and officials of the relevant departments.

The minister directed the officials concerned to remove the bottlenecks for the completion of the schemes within the stipulated time.

He expressed his annoyance over the delay often caused in getting approval for the launching of development schemes, and asked for proper coordination in this regard.

IG Prisons Mohammad Yameen Khan briefed the meeting about progress of 13 ongoing schemes, and said special attention was being paid to checking overcrowding by increasing the number of barracks at all jails in the province. The schemes meant for providing drinking water and health facilities to prisoners were also in progress, he added.

He told the meeting that a historical building until recently housing the district jail, Dadu, had been vacated as the site was proposed to be converted to a museum.

The minister appreciated the proposal and asked the IG to chalk out a comprehensive programme in this regard.

Dr Zuliqar Mirza also visited the Central Prison Karachi where the jail officials informed him about a proposal to introduce “video-conference system” at the prison for under-trial inmates.

Under the new system, a video studio would be set up and the system would be hooked to courts, he was told.

He was given a detailed presentation by the IG prisons about the pilot project.—PPI