LAHORE: The Punjab Home Department will provide free legal aid to needy prisoners in jails across the province.

“Poor prisoners who cannot afford lawyers to defend them in courts will get free legal aid,” said Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz here on Tuesday.

Now no poor prisoner in Punjab would be deprived of the facility of a lawyer, she declared.

The CM directed the authorities to form free legal aid committees in all 43 jails of Punjab in collaboration with the Punjab Bar Council and district bar associations.

Eligible prisoners will apply to their respective jail superintendents who will refer these applications to lawyers. A total of 447 lawyers have been included in free legal aid committees across Punjab.

Some 45 lawyers in Lahore division, 90 in Gujranwala, 70 in Rawalpindi, 47 in Faisalabad, 45 in Multan, 24 in Sargodha, 55 in Bahawalpur, 55 in Sahiwal and 16 lawyers in DG Khan division have been included in these free legal aid committees.

BIKES PROJECT: “Punjab will always take lead in providing facilities to students like the e-bikes,” said the chief minister while highlighting the provision of bikes that run on electricity as well as fuel to students under Chief Minister’s Youth Initiative.

Ms Nawaz directed the authorities to fix a minimum monthly installment in the e-bike project to facilitate the parents of the students.

“E-bike battery insurance and warranty is also given for the students in the scheme,” she said and added that Punjab also wanted to move to electric mobility like the rest of the world.

She underscored that the condition of parental guarantee had been waived off for the orphan students.

Solarised charging stations would be established in colleges and universities for charging e-bikes.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2024