October 21, 2008	Tuesday	Shawwal 21, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 20: The Sindh government has ordered the implementation of a 2002 decision pertaining to the recruitment of local people in security companies and providing them with necessary training.

The government has also stressed the need to carry out a survey to find out the actual number of workers domiciled in Sindh among the present employees of security agencies.

These instructions were given by Chief Secretary Fazal-ur-Rehman during a briefing given to him by Home Secretary Arif Ahmad Khan on Monday on the performance of his department.

According to sources, 203 security companies are operating in the province with about 80,000 employees. Twenty of the companies were issued licences in 2007-08.

During a review of the department performance, when it was brought to his knowledge that besides overcrowding of prisons, the other pressing problem was of non-production of prisoners in trial courts for want of prison vans, the chief secretary called for improving the system of taking prisoners to trial courts so that their cases were not delayed.

There are 15,329 undertrail prisoners out of a total of 17,792 prisoners. Of the 169 women prisoners, 126 are under trial. There are 2,202 convicts, including 41 women, 33 detainees under the Maintenance of Public Order ordinance and other laws. There are 39 children accompanying their mothers in the prisons, a report says. —Staff Reporter