ISLAMABAD: Federal Ombudsman Salman Faruqui urged philanthropists to help computerise and digitalise jails record comprising details regarding prisoners, including women and children.
This was necessary as many prisoners were languishing in jails despite completion of their terms due to improper maintenance of record, he said while addressing a meeting of the National Committee to ameliorate the condition of women and children in prisons.
The meeting was chaired by Pakistan Red Crescent Society Punjab Chairman Mian Muhammad Hanif. Faruqui appreciated the announcement by Mian Hanif, who is also head of Madina Foundation, to pay fines of up to Rs 10,000 of prisoners, who were under detention across Pakistan due to non-payment of fine.
He said that the purpose of the committee was to invite philanthropists and donors to help improve living conditions of the prisoners. On the occasion, Mian Hanif said the Madina Foundation would pay the fines of the prisoners, who had completed their sentences but were in jails for non-payment of fines.
Pakistan Sweet Homes (PSH) patron-in-chief Zamurad Khan said that some 3,600 children were registered with the Sweet Homes across Pakistan, who were being imparted education, besides health and shelter facilities. He opined the role of judiciary was important for improving conditions of jail inmates.
He proposed that four sub-committees be constituted for children, women, ailing and old-age detainees and prisoners with minor crimes. COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Rector Dr SM Juanid Zaidi appreciated the Federal Ombudsman for focusing the issues of prisoners and said that his university was engaged in providing quality education to children in jails on Ombudsman’s recommendations.
He said that there was dire need to change the behaviour of the jail staff towards the prisoners. Grievance Commissioner for Overseas Pakistanis senior sdviser Hafiz Ahsaan Ahmed Khokhar and Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi briefed the meeting about the working and achievements of the Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat.
The meeting was attended among others by former Balochistan minister Parveen Magsi, Anthropologist/documentarian Samar Minallah, Ghana’s Honorary Consulate General Shahid Rashid Butt, former Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry president Mian Hamad, who is also managing director of the Habib Textiles, besides senior government representatives and advisers of the secretariat.
