HARIPUR: An agreement was signed here on Friday to provide better healthcare, education, skill development and legal assistance to the inmates of the Haripur District Jail.

The agreement was inked by adviser to the Federal Ombudsman, Dr Rania Ahsan, additional assistant commissioner Dr Adil Ayub, superintendent Haripur Central Jail Maqsood ur Rehman, Dr Dildar, deputy medical officer DHQ, and Dr Zahoor Ahmed, assistant registrar, University of Haripur, at a ceremony held at the deputy commissioner’s office.

These facilities, according to the jail administration, were earlier being provided to the prisoners by different NGOs till 2014, when the then jail superintendent, Khalid Abbas stopped such activities without showing any reason.

Earlier, the district oversight committee for the jail also held a meeting with deputy commissioner Zahid Pervez Wariach and presented him detailed report based on the findings of various visits of its members to the jail.

The report pointed out shortcomings in the facilities, especially healthcare, education, skill development, psychological rehabilitation of prisoners, especially women and juveniles. The committee also recommended improving condition of prisoners, especially juveniles, women and resource-less inmates.

The deputy commissioner appreciated the committee and asked its members to continue monitoring the future interventions in the jail and share it with him for further communication to the Supreme Court and KP home and tribal affairs department for action.

The district oversight committee was constituted by the deputy commissioner in September after a suo motu notice taken by the apex court on the condition of women and children and resource-less prisoners.

MAN DIES ON ROAD: A man was killed when a speeding passenger bus hit him near Nika Pah village on the GT Road, police said on Friday. Police and witnesses said a man was standing on the roadside after parking his car when a rashly-driven passenger bus going to Mansehra struck him while overtaking another vehicle. The locals shifted the injured to the DHQ hospital, but he could not survive. He was identified as Gul Zeb of Abbottabad.

MAN KILLS WIFE: An angry man bludgeoned his wife to death in Shah Maqsood village over unknown reasons, police said on Friday.

They said Tariq Mehmood on Thursday entered into altercation with his wife over some family matter, which infuriated him to the extent that he started beating his wife, a mother of two minor children, leaving her critically injured.

The people in the neighbourhood rushed for help of woman and removed her to the district headquarters hospital, where she succumbed to head injuries. The police registered a criminal case against her husband and arrested him.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2018