QUETTA: Provincial Home Minister Ziaullah Langove on Wednesday pledged to advance reforms in the criminal justice sector envisioned under the Rule of Law Roadmap in Balochistan Project.

The minister made the pledge while speaking at a meeting of the steering committee of the Rule of Law Roadmap in Balochistan Project here.

The project, a brainchild of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the British High Commission, is aimed at introducing global best practices in criminal justice institutions in Balochistan.

The minister said that under the project, the government had succeeded in establishing a fully functional governance mechanism which drove evidence-based and cross-institutions rule of law reforms.

He said the project had full support of the Balochistan government and other stakeholders to make the initiative meaningful and sustainable.

The additional chief secretary for home and tribal affairs informed the meeting that PC-1 of the project had been approved by the government and it had committed Rs500 million for the purpose.

Speaking on the occasion, Jeremy Milsom, representative of UNODC Pakistan, said that because of coordination of the Balochistan government, the project had made considerable progress.

However, he said it was time to push forward and continue moving the needle on implementing a robust set of reforms in the criminal justice institutions to reinforce human rights and address underlying challenges of gender-based violence by promoting the rule of law and democracy in the province.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2020