Sindh Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Prisons Muhammad Ayaz Soomro has said the government would spend Rs 2 billion over the rehabilitation, improvement and provision of better facilities in the prisons of Sindh. “We want to ensure foolproof security as well as optimal facilities at the jails,” he said during a press conference here on Sunday.
Earlier, the minister chaired a meeting with the prison officials and elevated DIG Prisons Sukkur Region Abdul Majeed Siddiqui to the Inspector General of Prisons (IGP). DIGs Aashiq Memon, Muzaffar Alam Siddiqui and Gulzar Channa, additional DIGs and jail superintendents from 27 prisons in the province attended the meeting. “The government of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has created yet another history by elevating an officer from the prison police as the IGP,” he said, adding since the country’s independence the jail police had always its IGP from the regular police.
The prison minister informed that President Asif Ali Zardari had granted a special fund of Rs 2 billion for carrying out development schemes and provision of facilities to the inmates. Soomro added the government was also trying to bring the salaries of the prison police at par with the regular police. According to him, the nomenclatures of the prison police were being changed to make them similar to the regular police.
“Another accomplishment of the PPP government is that we have brought peace in the prisons,” he claimed and invited the journalists to visit any of the 27 prisons in the province at 15 to 20 minutes notice. “The barracks have radio, television and other facilities and we want to computerize the record of the prisons with the photo, thumb impression and other details of the prisoners,” he informed. He told the meeting reviewed the security, administration, facilities and other issues so that the best possible use of the funds could be made. The minister boasted that the prisoners were actively engaged in manufacturing processes in jails and they had been producing Sindhi caps, ajaraks, fabric, key chains and other items in addition to cultivation of vegetables and services like repairing of vehicles and other machinery. Soomro said new prisons were also being constructed in the province and the work on a prison in Karachi had already begun while suitable land was being searched in Kambar-Shahdadkot, Kashmore-Kandhkot and Umerkot districts. “These prisons would be built away from the urban population,” he told, adding the new prison in Karachi would house the hardened criminals. In view of the security threats, lighting arrangement had been made in Karachi while the close circuit television cameras and jammers would also be installed in the city. In reply to a question, the minister said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was a fugitive as far as record of Sindh Prison Police was concerned.
He advised Sharif to submit the required record which could show that he was released through the due process. “This should be done for the correction of the record which shows the Punjab CM as a fugitive,” he told. Soomro urged the courts to take suo moto notice of that matter that a person who was declared a fugitive by the police of one province was serving as the chief minister of another province. Talking about the supremacy of the parliament he said that the constitution and the parliament were the two paramount institutions while the rest were only government servants. “The parliamentarians are elected representatives while all the other government machinery are public servants,” he added.
