PESHAWAR, June 25: A non-governmental organisation has filed an application before the Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court, requesting him to depute a judicial magistrate for hearing cases of about 32 prisoners, involved in petty offences, in Kohat prison.

The application has been filed by Advocate Hamad Malik of Sharp (Society for Human Rights and Prisoners Aid), stating that most of the prisoners involved in minor offences were charged under section 107/151 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which were bailable offences.

The applicant added that these prisoners had been languishing in prison for the last many months and their release would help reduce burden on the said prison. The applicant further said that most of these prisoners were poor and had no resources to hire services of lawyers.

The application was filed by the organisation after its 6-member facts finding team visited the Kohat prison on June 8. The team comprised the administration assistant of Sharp, Major (Retd) Liaqat Ali and advocates Abdul Mabood Khattak, Hamad Malik, Ms Lubna, Ms Huma and Ms Rasheeda Malik.

During its visit the team found out that the prison had capacity of 480 male prisoners while there were 862 male prisoners. Similarly, the prison has a capacity to accommodate 20 women prisoners, but 25 women had been lodged there. Some of them are also having children with them. Most of the women have been either booked under the Hudood laws or under the narcotics laws.

The team claimed that there was a destitute woman prisoner, Ms Zahida, who had already completed her sentence, but was unwilling to leave the prison as she had no place to live outside. The team members suggested that she should be sent to Darul Aman.

The team members claimed that the male prisoners were facing water shortage. They added that the shortage could be met if 5 or 6 water pumps were installed in the jail. The women prisoners also complained to the team that there was no arrangement for cold drinking water in summers and they requested the PHC CJ that an electric cooler be provided for that purpose.