KOHAT: Over 500 prisoners are being kept at the Kohat jail against its capacity of 108 as work on construction of two additional blocks has been delayed for unknown reasons.

Life of the inmates is at risk as the Covid-19-induced SOPs are not being observed.

An employee of the prison department confided to Dawn on contact that whenever a high official or minister visited the jail the administration provided masks and senitisers to the inmates. He said no one was interested in resolving the limited space problem in the facility.

He said the jail had been shifted to the Bannu Road from the center of the city following riots among the inmates as some high-profile terrorists were kept there.

He recalled that when 156 Al-Qaeda members were arrested in Parachinar the jail had been completely vacated for them and all the prisoners were shifted to Bannu and DI Khan prisons.

“About 60 per cent of the jail is under the army control to keep watch on high profile terrorists,” said assistant commissioner Talha Zubair. He said such dangerous prisoners could not be moved to any other place because the army had no such facilities. He, however, said the administration would discuss the matter with the army authorities to find some viable solution to the problem.

Mr Zubair said except Abbottabad jail no Covid-19 case had been found at any other facility as tests of prisoners were conducted from time to time.

About the limited space he said two more blocks, including for women, had been under-construction. He said it was responsibility of the jail authorities to ensure provision of masks to the prisoners.

REVENUE JOBS: Provincial revenue minister Qalandar Khan Lodhi has said his department has approved 400 jobs for the merged areas to help speedily resolve the lingering land disputes in the region.

Addressing a ceremony during a visit to Kalaya, the headquarters of Lower Orakzai tehsil on Friday, he assured the tribal elders that the government would honor its promise of providing Rs110 billion to the merged areas for improving infrastructure there.

The minister said the Covid-19 pandemic had slowed the pace of development in the merged areas.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2020