KARACHI: As many as 820 convicted prisoners, including 21 women, across various penitentiaries in the province have been granted a special remission of 120 days in their sentences in celebration of Eidul Fitr, it emerged on Friday.

Official sources told Dawn that the special remission also led to the release of eight convicted prisoners – three each from Central Prison Karachi and Central Prison Hyderabad and two from Central Prison Sukkur.

Through a summary floated by the home department, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had on Friday granted the special remission to all the convicted prisoners languishing in jails across the province to mark the upcoming religious festival.

However, the prisoners convicted of murder, espionage, subversion, anti-state activities, terrorism, rape, kidnapping, robbery, dacoity, those undergoing sentences under the Foreigners Act 1946, Control of Narcotic Substances (Amendment) Act and those convicted in cases of financial embezzlement and causing loss to national exchequer, were not given the special remission.

Among the beneficiaries of the remission were 301 convicted prisoners in Central Prison Karachi, 149 in Central Prison Hyderabad, 186 in Central Prison Sukkur, 31 each in Central Prison Larkana and Central Prison Khairpur, 64 in Central Prison Mirpurkhas and 16 in District Prison Malir, 15 in Women Prison Karachi, five in District Prison Naushehro Feroze, four in Special Prison Nara Hyderabad, three each in Women Prison Hyderabad, Women Prison Sukkur and Youthful Offenders Industrial School Sukkur, and one in District Prison Jacobabad.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2025