KARACHI, May 5: Only five of more than 230 prisoners languishing in the Special Prison for Women in the city have benefited from the special remission announced by the government on the occasion of Eid Miladun Nabi, it is learnt. According to sources, three of the five inmates are foreigners. The prison has a total of 237 women prisoners, accompanied by their 45 children. Only 82 of the inmates are convicts. The number of remission beneficiaries appeared so little because of a long list of conditions attached to the offer.

The sources quoting some conditions from the remission order said that the special remission of 90 days applied to the convicts handed life imprisonment, and also excluded those convicted for murder, espionage, anti-state activities, sectarian (violence), Zina Ordinance, robbery (Sec 394 PPC), dacoity (Sec 395, 396 PPC), kidnapping/abduction (Sec 364-A and 365-A) and terrorists acts.

The offer allows special remission of 45 days to all convicts except those condemned and convicted for murder, espionage, subversion, anti-state activities, terrorist act, Zina Ordinance, kidnapping/abduction (Sec 364 A and 365 A), robbery (Sec 394-A PPC), dacoity (Sec 395–396 PPC) and also those undergoing sentences under the Foreigners Act.

According to the order, (any of the) the remission will be granted to the convicts who have already undergone 2/3rd period of their substantive sentence of imprisonment.

Total remission to female prisoners of above 60 years of age who have undergone 1/3rd of their sentence of imprisonment, except those involved in culpable homicide and those involved in terrorist acts.

Special remission of one year to the female prisoners who are accompanying their children and are convicted for the crimes other than culpable homicide, and those involved in terrorist acts.

The convicts in cases processed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will not be entitled to any remission.

Responding to the Dawn queries, the Superintendent of the Special Prison for Women, Sheeba Shah, said that not a single woman inmate had been released under the new remission order. The only five inmates who benefited from it have got their prison terms reduced.

She said that some other remissions were also available to some of the inmates. Some of these are: Superintendent’s discretion (1 month in a year); IG Prison’s discretion (2 months in a year), remissions for good conduct, work remission, remission for teaching and studying, blood donation, etc.

Responding to another question, she said that though the strength of local inmates (146) was higher than that of foreigners’ (91), the number of foreign convicts was much higher (61) than locals (21). The reason is that foreigners would plead guilty very quickly but locals prefer to contest their cases.