CM Punjab Chairs Meeting to Review Jail Reforms:

16/05/22

Chief Minister Punjab Hamza Shahbaz chaired a meeting at Model Town on Monday to review jail reforms and directed to provide him with a comprehensive roadmap for the welfare of the prisoners. The meeting was attended by Kh. Salman Rafiq, Ali Raza, Atta Tarar, Aniza Fatima, Mary James Gill., ACS (Home), secretary finance, IG prisons and others. The CM directed that a comprehensive plan should also be chalked out for the welfare of the jail employees. I know how detainees spend their time as I have spent 22 months in jail, he added. The jail world is a different phenomenon where inhuman treatment is meted out to inmates because of the obsolete jail system. There is no welfare for the prison staff either. I plan to immediately resolve the problems of jail employees and prisoners and the introduction of necessary reforms is the need of the hour, he stressed. The CM directed to immediately provide necessary medical equipment in jail hospitals adding that ambulances should be available to transfer patients from jail hospitals to other hospitals. He also directed to start shuttle service from the gate of Kot Lakhpat jail to the jail building for facilitating the visitors and added that shuttle service should also be started in such jails where there is a long distance from the gate to jail buildings. Similarly, the conditions of prisoners' rooms should also be improved; he said and asked the officials to submit a line of action along with a timeline to improve the jail system.