ISLAMABAD: Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi is generally under immense pressure by the influential elites to ‘accommodate’ prisoners with facilities not permissible under the law.

The jail also addresses the needs of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) as the city does not have any prison.  The prisoners are given discriminatory treatment based on their social status and political influence. Unfortunately, the preferential treatment inside the prison has created an environment of corruption and bribery at all levels. The transfers and postings of jail authorities are also being used for the extraction of undue favours.

The revelations into this account have been made recently by a team that was constituted by the chairperson Implementation Commission/Minister for Human Rights, the Secretary Implementation Commission and the Secretary Ministry of Human Rights, Islamabad.

Dr Irfan Iqbal had filed a writ petition in the Islamabad High Court seeking attention of the constitutional court towards the shocking and abysmal violation of human rights in the prisons of Pakistan.

The court had directed the Implementation Commission and also the Secretary Ministry of Human Rights to ensure that petitioner Dr Iqbal is neither harassed nor is meted out treatment of reprisal for bringing the attention of the court towards the violations of human rights in the prisons of Pakistan.

The court had also ordered the Implementation Commission, headed by the Minister of Human Rights, to ensure that impunity against the grave violation of human rights highlighted in the judgment titled Khadim Hussain versus the Secretary Ministry of Human Rights would come to an end and the officials responsible for such acts are held accountable.

On December 29, the Ministry of Human Rights in a letter addressed to the secretary Home Department, government of Punjab had sought comprehensive report with para-wise comments on the allegations made in the petition of Dr Iqbal.

The fact-finding team was headed by Director General Human Rights, Muhammad Arshad, while the other members included Lubna Mansoor, Arfan Shabbir and some others.

Epicentre of corruption

The team during its visit to the Central Jail Adiala, Rawalpindi on December 31, 2021 found that authorized capacity of the prison is 2,100 and about 5,700 inmates are confined in the jail which is more than double the authorized capacity. The inadequate space in the jail and the extra burden of prisoners from the ICT has turned Adiala Jail into an epicentre of gross maladministration and corrupt practices.

The jail authorities admitted before the team that there is much political interference in the affairs of the jail administration and influential prisoners use different means to get undue favours. The meeting register record shows that the prisoners are meted out discriminatory treatment based on their social status and political influence.

The report of the team also maintained that the petitioner, who is a victim of discrimination, has also in past remained a beneficiary of such discriminatory practices at Adiala Jail.

The jail authorities informed the team that the petitioner has spent most of his imprisonment at the jail hospital.

According to the team, the jail authorities acknowledged that the jail administration faces massive political pressure by the influential elites to accommodate the prisoners for facilitation which is not permissible under the existing rules.

The convicted persons and the undertrial prisoners are housed together in the barracks, but the undertrial prisoners are neither provided with jail uniform nor are they given separate mattresses in the barracks, whereas the convicted inmates are provided with both the facilities.

The undertrial prisoners are made to sleep in the “thapki” style which means the prisoners sleep in back-to-back positions along with the other inmates.

The prisoners are also made to go through vigorous labour in the jail while some are also deputed to work outside the jail’s premises. It is pertinent to mention here that the said practices are in violation of the rules and regulations pertaining to jails.

The harassment of Dr Irfan Iqbal was also brought to the notice of the DIG Prisons Rawalpindi and the AIG Prisons Lahore, and both the officers admitted that there are issues of corruption in the jails, besides admitting that overcrowding, especially at Adiala Jail, and rampant political interference are the root causes of the sorry state of affairs.

The team observed that the jail authorities entirely lack any understanding of human rights and the issues of the prisoners. The team also observed that the internal complaints mechanism of the prison authorities was ineffective for the redressal of the complaints regarding the treatment meted out to the inmates.

Recommendations

The team recommended establishment of an independent body for permanently overseeing the prison affairs other than the administration of the prisons.

Meanwhile, social worker Ansar Burney, who has extensively worked on the issues faced by the inmates in the prisons of Pakistan, while talking to Bol News said that he himself remained a political prisoner three times.

He said all the prisons in Pakistan are under political influence. He also said influencing the jails through money is another dilemma.

Burney suggested that the government should make the prisons independent so that no political influence can affect their day-to-day affairs.

During recent proceedings of the National Assembly, the Federal Minister for Communication Murad Saeed had highlighted issues being faced by the prisoners in Punjab and KP’s jails.

An advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Mohammad Farooq told this writer that there are laws that address the issues of jails. He said there is a need to implement these laws to make the jails free from political and other influences.

He said that according to the jail manual there are three sorts of categories of prisons. He said the high-profile people are placed under the ‘A’ category, while the ‘B’ category is for those inmates who are taxpayers or are at least graduates. The hardcore criminals are placed under the ‘C’ category.

He highlighted that there will be no need of other laws to tackle the political interference in prisons if the jail manual is literally implemented.

Meanwhile, a project is being undertaken to set up a model prison at H-16 Sector in Islamabad for which Rs1,667 million has already been utilized.

According to the interior ministry the project to set up a prison in Islamabad was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on July 20, 2016 with an estimated cost of Rs3.9 billion.