Adiala Central Prison’s inmates on Friday demanded the government to open a utility store inside the jail.
The prisoners said that the Adiala Jail canteen was auctioned off for Rs 10 million to a contractor, the highest in the jail’s history.
This gave the contractor the license to sell commodities at a rate 5 times higher than the market rates. Most prisoners are from poor backgrounds and shopping at the canteen would become unaffordable for them.
They said that the monthly rent of shops surrounding the jail was around Rs 10,000, while the canteen’s rent was Rs 80,000. According to them, the contractor would extract all his expenses from his poor customers by setting exorbitant rates.
The prisoners appealed to the government to open a utility store in the jail so that they could purchase daily essential items at subsidized rates.
