LAHORE, July 10: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has welcomed promulgation of the presidential ordinance for release of scores of woman prisoners and decided to monitor its implementation and impact on under-trial prisoners.

Commenting on promulgation of the ordinance, HRCP chairperson Asma Jehangir said in a statement that it had provided great relief to under-trial prisoners and their release should take place as quickly as possible.

She, however, pointed out that a similar relief measure had been announced for woman prisoners during former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s first tenure, but the ordinance promulgated for the purpose did nothing to address systematic flaws in the legal system of the country.

She reiterated the HRCP’s stance that there was a need to repeal discriminatory laws, particularly the Hudood Ordinance, which resulted in a large number of women being unjustly jailed every year. The widespread abuse of power by police and the courts was an issue that needed to be urgently addressed. While woman prisoners had always enjoyed the right to bail, the HRCP would like to suggest the government to consider reinforcing the right to statutory bail that had previously been available to woman prisoners who had remained under-trial for a period exceeding one or two years. The provision had been done away with by the present government.

The HRCP chairperson expressed the hope that the ordinance would serve as the first step towards offering relief to women in jail and more woman prisoners would not continue to be unnecessarily dragged behind the bars by the police. These women often remained housed under the most inhuman conditions and were urgently in need not only of a one-time solution but of changes in laws and policy also that could solve the problems of woman prisoners on a permanent basis. —Reporter