Population in 38 jails of the province is also above the sanctioned space: Report
\nJAVED KHAN
\nPESHAWAR
\nKhyber Pakhtunkhwa\u2019s overcrowded prisons confined more than 14000 inmates at the end of 2022, with a majority of them being those under-trials for crimes they had allegedly committed.
\nAccording to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)\u2019s flagship annual report \u201cState of Human Rights in 2022\u201d, the number of inmates convicted in the jails of KP stood at 2,513 while 11,034 were undertrials.
\n\u201cData from KP Prisons Department indicates that, as against a sanctioned capacity of 13,106 inmates, the province\u2019s 38 jails held 14,079 prisoners, implying overcrowding by 7 percent. Under-trial prisoners far outnumbered convicted prisoners at a ratio of 4.4 to 1,\u201d the report noted.
\nOf the total 14,079 inmates, 13,394 were male, 171 were female, 514 were juvenile, 33 were children, 2,513 were convicted, 11,034 were under-trials and 52 persons were languishing in the jails on death row, according to the report. In KP there are six central, eight district, and 24 sub-jails.
\nA senior official in the Home and Tribal Affairs Department told this scribe on the condition of anonymity that many poor people are detained in the prisons of the province for alleged involvement in billable offences primarily because they were unable to furnish surety or owing to slow courts trials.
\nMany people end up spending long time in jail merely because they are poor, he lamented and said that courts, police and lawyers in many ways are the major driving forces behind the overpopulated under-trial prisoners issue.
\n\u201cIn fact the courts are facing a massive backlog and burden of cases in the province whereas the challenge to address the issue of under-trial prisoners requires some bold and creative steps for some time to come, \u201c he noted.
\nSenior lawyer Peshawar High Court (PHC) Tariq Afghan said that it is imperative for our police in criminal investigation to buckle up and use modern technology to keep up with the current state of affairs.
\nThe police department needs to incorporate technological aspects in its system of investigation, adding that the under-trial prisoners constitute a significant majority of the KP\u2019s prisons population due to certain flaws in the justice system, lawyers and police.
\nWhile commenting on the long standing issue, Mr Afghan maintained that the judiciary, lawyer\u2019s fraternity, police and prosecution department should play their due role in culminating the miseries of under-trial people of the province.
\nWhile KP\u2019s justice processes have been infamous for the slow dispensation of cases, the lackluster performance of the departments concerned further decelerated judicial processes for those detained in prisons while awaiting trials, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Population in 38 jails of the province is also above the sanctioned space: Report JAVED KHAN PESHAWAR Khyber Pakhtunkhwa\u2019s overcrowded prisons confined more than 14000 inmates at the end of 2022, with a majority of them being those under-trials for crimes they had allegedly committed. According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)\u2019s flagship annual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-330091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n