Ph: 051-9214793 No.Secy-Office/AJDF/2013/LJCP Fax: 051-9214797 Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (Supreme Court Building) Constitution Avenue Islamabad 2nd November, 2013 PRESS RELEASE One day workshop on Prisoners Vulnerability – Lacking Awareness, organized by the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) was held on 2nd November, 2013 at Federal Judicial Academy, H-8/4, Islamabad . The Workshop was chaired b y the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan / Chairman, LJCP and was attended by the Hon’ble Judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Federal Shariat Court and High Courts, Chief Justices and Judges of the Supreme Court and High Court of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the Chief Judge and Judges of the Supreme Appellate Court and Chief Court of Gilgit-Baltistan, District Judiciary, Inspectors General Police, Inspectors General (Prisons), Directors, Reclamation & Probation, Attorney General for Pakistan, Advocate Generals of provinces, Vice Chairmen of Provincial Bar Councils, office bearers of the Supreme Court Bar Association, representatives of the High Court and District Bar Associations, jurists, Non Official Visitors of jail, members of the Civil Society and convicts released after serving sentence and released on parole. The Workshop was aimed to provide opportunity to the concerned stakeholders to share their views and experiences for suggesting reforms for the improvement of dilapidated conditions of jails, creating awareness about the rights and privilege of prisoners permissible under the Jail Manual and evolving strategy for rehabilitation of prisoners. The Workshop was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan with his keynote address saying that the Constitution of Pakistan grantees the personal dignity and liberty of all human beings and that torture and inhuman treatment with the prisoners are not only against Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN covenant on Civil and Political Rights but are also against the injunctions of our religion. Referring to the overcrowding and dilapidated conditions in jails, the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan highlighted the importance of the Workshop for evolving viable recommendations for reforms of jails and betterment of poor conditions of prisoners. After inaugural session the participants, were assembled in four thematic groups as under:- (1) Rights and privileges of Prisoners (2) Monitoring Prisons – Role of District Judiciary (3) Prisons Reforms – A Dire Need (4) Rehabilitation of Prisoners – Neglected Area The 1st group was chaired by Mr. Justice Jawwad S.Khawaja, Judge Supreme Court of Pakistan and co-chaired by Mr. Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Chief Justice, High Court of Balochistan and Mr. Justice Maqbool Baqar, Chief Justice, High Court of Sindh, the 2nd group was chaired by Mr. Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Judge Supreme Court of Pakistan and co-chaired by Mr. Justice Dost Muhammad Khan, Chief Justice, Peshawar High Court, 3 rd group was chaired by Mr. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Judge Supreme Court of Pakistan and co-chaired by Mr. Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Chief Justice, Lahore High Court and Mr. Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi, Chief Justice, Islamabad High Court and 4th group was chaired by Mr. Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, Judge Supreme Court of Pakistan and co-chaired by Mr. Justice Muhammad Azam Khan, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. After exhaustive deliberations and discussion on the theme, each group formulated its recommendations which were presented in the concluding session by the Chairperson of the respective groups and were approved as under; Group I on “Rights and privileges of Prisoners” recommended that synopsis of basic rights and privileges of prisoners should be made available in Urdu, English and regional language on prison premises, awareness programs to educate prisoners should be held, transportation facilities for male and female prisoners must be arranged, utility stores within prisons premises may be established to eliminate over pricing and corruption, concepts of “suspended sentence” and leaves on parole must be promoted, protection and enforcement of fundamental rights as enshrined in article 25 of Constitution may be ensured and sentencing guideline should be introduced in Pakistan, legislative reforms with respect to concession available to prisoners under the constitution should be introduced, strict time limits for the procedures between arrest and court proceeding need to be set out, disposal system should be established to ensure that cases of not delayed indefinitely ad overcrowding within prisons is reduced, United Nations Rules and other international conventions on prisoners may be incorporated within laws of Pakistan, landline telephone facilitates may be made available to prisoners for elimination of mobile use within prison. Group on II “Monitoring Prisons – Role of District Judiciary” recommended that District Judiciary should be encouraged to visit jails regularly even on holidays to boost the morale of prisoners and listen to their complaints and depict a willingness of the system to ensure the enforcement of prisoners’ fundamental rights. The district judiciary should prepare regular monitoring reports detailing their findings, accomplishments and suggestions to duly appointed members of the superior judiciary. Sentence plans should be prepared for prisoners at the beginning of their sentences to ensure that they are gainfully utilized and employed in community-building exercises to reduce the rate of recidivism. District Judiciary should extend the benefits of the probation and parole to deserving prisoners so they may be rehabilitated to the community at large. Presently, there is only one institute to train officers and judges with regards to prison administration; therefore, more such institutions need to be established in all four provinces to ensure the welfare of prisoners. The district judiciary should inquire into the incidents where prisoners have not filed appeal on a case to case basis to find out its reasons and arrange legal assistance in appropriate cases to reduce instances of hardened criminals voluntarily going to jail to avoid gang warfare. The district judiciary should ensure the inspection of barracks, cells, wards, cooked food, jail registers and record compliance of health and hygiene standards as inquire as to whether any prisoners is illegally detained or detained for any undue length of time. The Bench and Bar should collaborate by inter alia nomination of lawyers by the judiciary to visit prisons as a part of a supervisory judicial role. Grievance boxes should be provided in every prison. Solitary confinement and denial of privileges should not take place without judicial appraisal. The prisoner’s handbook should be prepared in local languages and copies should be circulated among prisoners to create awareness. Group on III “Prisons Reforms – A Dire Need” recommended that women and juvenile / prisoners at provincial headquarters may be constructed, lenient policy for old prisoners (60 years old and above) may be devised for their release, illegal detention should be controlled by making police officials accountable, district judiciary should be made accountable for granting remands mechanically and carelessly. High security of prisons is required in view of large number of incidents of terrorism, computerized cards may be provided to prisoners for entry to control the corruption by prison officials. Professional and vocational trainings for all the prisoners must be arranged. Prevention programmes be designed with regard to HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis, TB etc. Group IV on “Rehabilitation of Prisoners – Neglected Area” recommended that a one day workshop should be held exclusively in respect of women prisoners in order to enable them to fully, openly and candidly participate in the consideration of the various topics before the four thematic groups. Existing legislation, especially in respect of parole and probation, needs to be applied in a flexible and dynamic manner with maximum recourse to the rule making power and also taking structured and formalized input and assistance from NGO’s. Rehabilitation requires different categories and types of prisoners being dealt with differently in accordance with their varying needs. In order to ensure effective interaction between the NGO’s, trusts etc working in this area on the one hand, and the state institutions that are currently tasked with this job on the other, such as the prison authorities and probation directorates, a program be urgently launched for the proper training and revamping of the latter, both in general terms and in specialized fields and to improve the facilities and other support structure that is needed by them to do their work. The Workshop ended with the concluding speech by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan / Chairman, LJCP, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Senior Pusine Judge of Supreme Court of Pakistan and vote of thanks by the Secretary, Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan. This press release can be download from our website www.ljcp.gov.pk (Dr. Mohammad Tahir) Deputy Secretary .