PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has asked the additional chief secretary home department and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inspector general of prisons to provide updates about implementation of decisions on prison reforms in the province, including shifting of high profile prisoners to high security prisons in Punjab.

A letter was sent by PHC Registrar Ikhtiar Khan to ACS home and tribal affairs department Mohammad Abid Majeed, IG Prisons, Mohammad Usman Mehsud, and superintendents of Peshawar, Mardan and Swabi prisons along with minutes of a meeting held at PHC on Nov 2, 2024, under the chairmanship of senior

pusine judge Justice Ijaz Anwar, wherein several decisions were taken for reforming prisons in the province.

The registrar has asked the officials to inform the court till Jan 30 about status of the implementation of the said decisions, which would be placed before Justice Ijaz Anwar, who is the administrative/monitoring judge for prison reforms and is also chairman/convener of a sub-committee on jail reforms for KP.

The said meeting had discussed multiple issues faced by prisons in KP such as overcrowding, confinement of large number of high profile convicts/condemned prisoners and non-availability of highly secured prisons.

It was decided that high profile convicts may be shifted to high security prisons in Sahiwal and Mianwali for safe confinement. The ACS was directed to take up the matter with the federal government for its early resolution.

The ACS was also directed to expedite the matter regarding shifting of 89 prisoners belonging to other provinces, who were not required in any case in KP, to Punjab so as to overcome the problem of overcrowding.

Similarly, the meeting had taken decision regarding phase 2 construction of Central Prison Peshawar, which included construction of prisons inspectorate, interview rooms, courts, mosque and rooms for staff accommodation.

The meeting had directed the ACS and DIG prisons to take up the matter with the provincial government and its finance department for its early resolution.

Moreover, the meeting had also discussed the issue of overcrowding in Swabi sub-jail, which is the old prison, where only around 120 prisoners could be accommodated.

The new Swabi District Jail has been under construction and one of its blocks is nearing completion and partially operational and the prisoners could be shifted to that block.

The IG prisons and the superintendent of the Swabi jail were directed to expedite the matter.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2025