KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly was informed on Thursday that as many as 2,847 prisoners were suffering from hepatitis in 18 penitentiaries across the province.

While furnishing a statement and answering queries of lawmakers during the Question Hour session in the provincial assembly, Minister for Prisons Syed Nasir Hussain Shah also apprised the members that currently 84 jail inmates, all males, were suffering from AIDS, while 383 men and two women were suffering from chronic diseases.

Giving details, he said that 1,200 inmates in the Central Prison Hyderabad were suffering from hepatitis, 171 in Central Prison Karachi, 42 in Central Prison Sukkur, 46 in Central Prison Larkana, 424 in District Prison Mirpurkhas, 154 in District Prison Sanghar, 55 in District Prison Badin, 481 in District Prison Shaheed Benazirabad and 65 at Youth Offenders Industrial School in Karachi till June 2017.

The minister said that the provincial government was now taking all-out measures to provide jail inmates with all possible medical facilities.

He said that patients were being kept separately to ensure that others did not catch their diseases.

Replying to a question raised by Grand Democratic Alliance’s member Arif Mustafa Jatoi, Nasir Shah said that there was no provision for payment of allowances for daily food and beverages to prisoners.

However, he added, the jail inmates were provided food daily three times — morning, middy and evening meals — as per Pakistan Prison Rules.

The minister said that the prisoners were being provided with best food in the province. To this, Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, who was currently confined in jail on corruption charges, said that meat, vegetables and other items were given to inmates as per schedule.

Replying to another question, the minister said that he could not give a deadline for removing the mobile phone jammers around and from the Central Prison Karachi.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf member Jamal Siddiqui said that the people who resided near the prison faced difficulties as jammers installed inside the penitentiary also affect the nearby residential areas.

Acknowledging the problem, Nasir Shah said that the step was taken for security reasons as many hardcore criminals and terrorists were also detained in the jails.

In reply to a question asked by opposition member Rana Ansar, he said that five children were lodged along with their mothers in Special Prison for Women Larkana, while no child was confined along with mother in Special Prison for Women Sukkur.

Separately, he said there were as many as 27 jails in the province.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2019