PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has directed the firm constructing the high security Mardan jail to complete the work at the earliest so the high profile prisoners in Peshawar Central Jail could be shifted there.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the home and tribal affairs department’s secretary Syed Akhtar Ali Shah warned the relevant contractor to complete the work till Aug 31, or face being blacklisted.

He said that a special block of 127 foolproof security cells had been constructed in the Mardan jail to keep terrorists there. It said that the prisoners would be shifted through helicopters.

The statement said that the prison’s walls were bombproof, and an 18-foot wide road had also been constructed for patrolling and keeping a check on movement of people from the watch towers round the clock. The hearing of high profile cases would be processed through video links inside the prison.

The government, said Mr Shah, had also decided to construct six new high security jails in Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Kohat, Lower Dir, Haripur and Mansehra.

Similarly, he said that the prisons would be equipped with solar system to overcome the problem of loadshedding, adding that a supply of solar power to central prison Haripur had been completed at a cost of Rs145 million.

He said that filtration plants had also been provided to 11 prisons at a cost of Rs123 million to ensure provision of clean drinking water to the inmates.

The statement said that the Mardan jail was a project of Rs1.7 billion.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2014