LAHORE, May 22: The Punjab government is considering to revise the prison rules to allow inclusion of ‘earned remissions’ into the period specified for becoming eligible for parole.

“The revision is being made for all kinds of prisoners and not for any specific person like a newspaper owner, Rehmat Shah Afridi,” a senior official told Dawn on Thursday.

He said the provincial government had not received any reference from any quarter for releasing Mr Afridi on parole, nor had it been directed to amend the rules to benefit him. “No parole case of Mr Afridi is pending decision with the Punjab government,” he made it clear.

Under the prisons rules, he said, different kinds of prisoners could avail themselves of the facility of getting released on parole after undergoing specified period of imprisonment. But this specified period did not include the remissions prisoners get as a result of government announcements, or which they earn through reformation process, or even improvement in educational qualifications.

Now it was being considered to revise the age-old rules and include the earned remissions into the period specified for seeking parole, he said, adding that the amendment would benefit hundreds of prisoners.

The official explained that after the amendment, a prisoner who has earned six months’ remission could apply for parole after three and-a-half years if the specified period for his type of imprisonment is four years.

He said the rules did not also include punishments introduced after their formation. Therefore, the offences introduced in the meantime would also be included in them to benefit those punished for committing them.

The official clarified that the parole was not granted automatically to prisoners after completing the term in jail for the period specified for making them eligible for the facility. Instead, this was granted upon an individual’s request which is scrutinised by a committee comprising secretaries of the home, law and prosecution departments, and the director probation.