KARACHI: Prisons in Sindh are facing a shortage of executioners or jallads and no death row prisoner has been hanged for the last couple of years, but the authorities are reluctant to fill the vacant posts.
The posts of executioners have been vacant for more than a decade now, well-placed sources in the prison department told Pakistan Today.
At least 25,000 prisoners are serving their terms in around 20 prisons of the province even though their total capacity is 9,541. There are 2,641 convicted prisoners, 15,650 under-trial prisoners, 45 detente (detained under MPO or any other law), three prisoners remanded under civil law, 268 death row prisoners, 167 female prisoners and more than 303 juvenile offenders.
“There are around 268 condemned prisoners in 20 central prisons in the province,” Sindh Inspector General of Prisons Ghulam Qadir Thebo told Pakistan Today. Interestingly, the official avoided giving details about the number of jallads in the prisons by insisting that no prisoners were hanged during the last two years despite the jail staff being available to hang a convict.
“The jallads are required only for central prisons of Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana, Khairpur, Sukkur-I and II. However, the executions have been stayed for a long time. At least 117 convicted prisoners are in the Karachi central jail, 90 in Hyderabad, 42 in Sukkur-I, 18 in Larkana and a female in the woman prison,” Thebo added.
There are some 152 death cells in the prisons in Sindh while 64 new cells are being established for the condemned prisoners, the IG prisons said. Giving details about the executions carried out in the last ten years, Thebo said that one prisoner was executed in 2001, another in 2004, three in 2007 and one more in 2008.
Jail authorities, requesting anonymity, told Pakistan Today that the President House has been postponing the execution of condemned prisoners just to present a positive image of the present government.
The execution of a convict named Jalal Morjo has been postponed at least seven times on direct orders from the presidency, they added.
