KARACHI: Legislators from the upper house of parliament on Thursday stressed the need for building new prisons in Karachi, where the one central facility housed 6,500 inmates against its official capacity of 2,400, and called the situation “terrible” which could worsen if it was not addressed on time.

The members of the Senate Standing Committee’s Functional Committee on Human Rights led by its chairperson, Nasreen Jalil, visited the central prison, interacted with inmates and met officials managing the facility before deciding that they would recommend building of new prisons in the city at a faster pace and expedite judicial process of undertrial prisoners.

“The prison management has been doing a wonderful job and one must appreciate that,” Senator Jaleel told Dawn after the meeting. “They have arranged everything they can from art classes to vocational training. But the problem lies somewhere else. The prison has a capacity for 2,400 people but it has some 6,500 prisoners, which is terrible. The most worrying fact is that there are only 1,000 convicted of them and over 5,000 are still undertials.”

The other members of the committee included federal minister for human rights Kamran Michael, Senator Sitara Ayaz, Senator Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari, Senator Mir Kabir Ahmed Muhammad Shahi, Senator Nisar Muhammad and Senator Samina Abid.

Before holding a meeting with IG-Prisons Nusrat Mangan, the senators interacted with prisoners and heard their complaints.

Most prisoners, they found, were worried about their pending trials and the lethargic judicial process, which on one hand had been a cause of nuisance for them and their families and, on the other, increasing pressure on the prison. After their time at the prison, the committee had decided to meet the Sindh chief minister to forward their recommendations with a request for their urgent implementation.

“The women section is in a much better state,” said Senator Jaleel. “It’s a strange fact that there are a total of 21,000 prisoners in prisons across Sindh but over 11,000 are in Karachi’s two jails — central and Landhi — alone. We would hopefully meet the chief minister soon and suggest to him to build a new prison at the earliest. Similarly, we would also raise the salary issue of jail staff which is quite low. The number of jail staff should also be increased as the facility is being served by the force sanctioned for 2,400 prisoners but actually it’s taking care of 6,500 people.”

Meanwhile, a statement issued by the committee said IG Mangan briefed the committee on various problems being faced by the jail authorities, including overcrowding in the central jail Karachi, and security threats due to its location, being situated in the heart of the city. He further informed the committee that the jail was very sensitive as hardcore criminals and terrorists had been lodged there, said the statement.

“Federal minister for human rights Kamran Michael pledged that necessary measures would be taken to separate prisoners involved in serious crimes from inmates involved in minor offences,” the statement said. “The functional committee on human rights also visited the prisoner’s wards, training centres, fine arts schools, computer laboratories, playgrounds, hospitals and other sections of the jail and asked the prisoners about problems being faced by them.”

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2016