Myra Imran

Islamabad: The Ministry of Human Rights will release a grant of Rs1.07 million for the prisoners languishing in jails of Balochistan despite having served their sentences mainly due to their inability to pay fines.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the Administrative Committee of Diyat, Arsh and Daman chaired by the Advisor to Prime Minister on Human Rights Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar. Secretary of Ministry of Human Rights, Saeed Ahmed Alvi, also attended the meeting. The Ministry of Human Rights has a special fund called Dyat, Arsh, and Daman Fund for the release of prisoners who are in jails even after completing their sentences but due to some technical reasons, the fund could not be disbursed for a long time.

After assuming the charge of the ministry, Advisor Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar got approved a special grant of Rs20 million from the cabinet and additional Rs15 million from Ministry of Finance for this fund. Soon after the approval of fund, the Ministry of Human Rights held a meeting of the administrative committee of Diyat, Arsh and Daman. It was decided that the provincial governments would set up sub-committees who would provide lists of deserving prisoners for the fund. As a result, Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh governments constituted their sub-committees whereas the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa could not form its committee.

After a lapse of much time, no province forwarded any lists of prisoners languishing in jails. Disappointed with the slow response, the Ministry of Human Rights wrote to the chief ministers of all the provinces to expedite the matter and send the lists of prisoners to the ministry. The indifference of provinces continued till January, which depicts the insensitivity of provincial authorities towards the mental and physical agony of hundreds of such prisoners.

According to statistics available with the ministry, there are around 200 such prisoners in the country. The purpose of the meeting held on Monday was to consider recommended lists of the prisoners finally provided by Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Balochistan governments for the disbursement of funds. The meeting noted with concern that though Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Balochistan have forwarded their lists, the provinces of Punjab and Sindh have failed to furnish any such list yet.

The Ministry of Human Rights expressed dismay and disappointment over the slow response of the provincial governments in Punjab and Sindh. The advisor urged both provinces to come up with their recommended lists of prisoners on urgent basis.

The meeting decided that the recommended list of prisoners by Khyber Pakhtunkhawa does not fulfil the criteria laid down in Diyat, Arsh and Daman rules. The recommended list of Balochistan was found thorough and according to the rules. It was decided in the meeting to release a grant of Rs1.073500 million for the recommended prisoners of Balochistan immediately. To ensure transparency, the ministry decided to send detailed guidelines to the provinces for recommending prisoners.

It was also decided in the meeting to form rules amendment committee for removing further anomalies in the rules of Diyat, Arsh and Daman. Moreover, to make the process more transparent, the regional directorates of human rights ministry would also be involved in the process who would verify the conditions of the recommended prisoners.

Source: The News