Arrangement should be made by the police, judiciary and jail administration to keep the children of those who have committed a crime away from the jails, said civil society organisations and parliamentarians during a consultation on ‘Children of Incarcerated Parents’ at local hotel in Lahore.
Dr IA Rehman from the HRCP said Pakistan was party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) under which it was the government’s responsibility to not to send the children to jails along with their mother in their best interest.
“Government must use non-custodial measures like bail and probation system to keep women and their children away from jail,” he said.
SPARC Executive Director Arshad Mahmood said courts were the custodians of law and they should ensure that the rights of these children were protected.
He demanded the release of women prisoners on probation. He said except the issue of diet, place of pregnancy and suspension of death sentence to pregnant woman mentioned in the Pakistan Prison Rules, there was no such direct legislative provision that states for the rights of children whose parents had committed an offense.
“Children in jails face loneliness and live in isolation and do not have areas to play,” he said, adding that according to prison rules, children of up to six years could live with mothers and in some cases live up to 10 years of age when there was nobody outside to take care of the child.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MPA Arifa Khalid said it was against the spirit of the constitution that children were not being given their rights to liberty. She emphasised that training sessions of parliamentarians, police and judicial officials should be held to teach them how to protect the rights of such children.
MPA Deeba Mirza said women offenders had the problem of submitting bonds and sureties when they were granted bails so courts should use their discretion in granting bails on person sureties so that children should not go to prisons along with them and stay outside with their mothers and get all protection and care under the institution of family.
SPARC’s Rashad Aziz shared draft recommendations for the protection and welfare of children whose parents were in jails. He recommended that police and prison should be legally obliged to collect information about the number and age of children who are languishing in jails and make necessary arrangements for their well-being.
National Programme Manager Abdullah Khoso said there were about 180 children along with about 1,200 women prisoners in different prisons of Pakistan and there was no comprehensive scientific and systematic research on social and psychological impacts of the treatment given and the procedures applied on children with women prisoners in detention centres in clear violation of Article 25 (3) of the constitution that asked for provisions for the protection of such children.
He added that unfortunately it cannot be ascertained how children were being abused and deprived of from their social, cultural and economic rights since there was no independent system and body in place within or outside the prison departments to monitor such abuses, exploitation and discrimination..
Absar Abdul Ali, media expert, Rao Khalil Ahmed, deputy director CPWB, Abdul Rasheed, regional directorate of Human Rights, Abid Raza deputy secretary Law Department Punjab, Iftikhar Mubarak, Sara Asad and others also spoke on the occasion.
