KARACHI, March 14: The Sindh caretaker chief minister, retired Justice Abdul Qadir Halepota, on Friday directed the relevant authorities to improve the condition of 20 prisons in the province.

He particularly stressed the need for the provision of health care facilities to around 18,900 inmates languishing in various prisons.

The chief minister was speaking at a high-level meeting held at the Chief Minister’s House here on Friday. The meeting was attended by Federal Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney, Sindh Minister for Women Development Nadira Panjwani, Sindh Chief Secretary Fazlur Rehman, Additional Chief Secretary Nazar Hussain Mahar, the IG prisons, and others.

The chief minister said that prisoners were human beings and should be treated in a humane manner, which according to him, was a must for their reformation in the prisons.

He said that in most of the jails in the province the number of inmates had exceeded the prison’s capacity.

“These prisons have a capacity for 10,000 prisoners but at present 20,000 are being kept there while the condition of Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur jails is also not satisfactory”, he remarked.

The chief minister also referred to his earlier directives regarding women and children inmates, who did not have the means to pay fines. He said that the Sindh government would pay fines on their behalf so that these helpless people get their freedom.

Justice Halepota noted that medical facilities in Sindh jails were almost non-existent. He said that the prisons in the province had only 28 doctors with a small number of paramedics while non-availability of medicines was all the more regrettable.

He said that the Sindh government would enhance the funds for the provision of medical facilities to the prisoners while jails should have at least 50 doctors and more than 50 paramedics.

The chief minister said that cooperation of the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) would also be sought to improve the condition of jails and would also be allowed to open schools in jails.

He also directed the relevant authorities to take steps for the protection of prisoners from diseases like Aids and hepatitis, etc.

The caretaker chief minister called for the computerisation of the records of prisoners to ascertain their periods of internment.

The meeting was informed that the women development department would pay fines up to Rs100,000 for interned women and children.—APP