Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah Tuesday took a strong exception to criminal activities being made by the prisoners through communication devices from jail and ordered the provincial home department to immediately shift 51 “dangerous and convicted” prisoners to prisons outside the province.
Also, the chief minister directed the transfer of those prisoners who are under-trial but are involved in criminal activities to jails located outside the city but within the province along with their cases.
Shah made these directives while chairing a high-level meeting at the CM House that decided in principal that the Sindh government would help the federal government to implement the Pakistan Protection Ordinance (PPO).
Among others, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah, Secretary Finance Sohail Rajput, Secretary Law Mir Muhammad Shaikh, IG Sindh Police Shahid Baloch, Advocate General Khalid Javaid and IG Prisons Nusrat Manghan attended the meeting.
The chief minister took the serious notice of the criminal activities being made by the prisoners through communication devices and he directed the additional chief secretary immediately to shift 51 dangerous and convicted prisoners out of province, said a handout issued by the CM House.
It said the additional chief secretary (home) told the meeting that as many as 500 such under-trial prisoners had been indentified to take action against them under this charge.
The chief minister directed the inspector general prison to ensure installation of jammers in the central and Landhi jails of the city within a month time for which Rs 88 million had already been released to his administration.
Shah also constituted a committee headed by the additional chief secretary home to approach the Sindh High Court and evolve such mechanism under which the challaned cases pertaining to ongoing targeted operation against terrorists/extortionist be tried and decided within a week time by ATCs.
The chief minister, while taking serious notice of weak challans submitted in the courts specially under the Arm Act, directed the IG police to take action against the police officers who challaned their cases with defective arms or licensed arms in the courts under Arm Act that resulted in the release of accused easily.
Shah also strictly directed the IG prison to adopt fool-proof security at all prisons, especially that of Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur. “So that neither prisoner could commit crimes from inside nor the criminals could cause threat to the prisons from outside,” the statement said.
Further, agreeing to extend all-out help to the federal government in the implementation of PPO, the meeting pointed out some legal issues that, the PPP-led provincial government believed, needed to be resolved by the center through appropriate amendment in the PPO.
“Prosecution is the primary function of the provincial government,” the meeting observed.
ACS Mumtaz briefed the meeting that the federal government wanted to establish special courts with collaboration of provincial government for trial of cases under PPO and requested for providing necessary help and number of such required courts in the province along with location with proper security to witnesses, prosecution officials and judges.
The chief minister endorsed the recommendations of the advocate general and agreed to provide full assistance to the federal government subject to resolution of some legal issues which were to be communicated to the concerned authorities through the home department.
After threadbare discussion, the meeting concluded that the prosecution and prisons-related issues must be resolved so that the ongoing targeted operation could be made a success.
