Four high security jails will be built in Punjab to contain those convicted on terrorism charges. Superintendent New Central Jail Multan Mubashar Ahmed Khan, talking to newsmen here on Monday said that those prisons would be established in Multan, Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi.
He said the high-risk jail at Multan would be constructed at the premises of the New Central Jail to house 80 inmates, adding that at present, 43 terrorists were lodged in this facility.
"The hearing of cases against terrorists takes place within the jail for security reasons, and district and sessions judges or their deputies come from district Multan, Vehari, Khanewal or Muzaffargarh to listen to the complaints of the prisoners," he explained.
Another important reason for their visits was to review petty cases and grant them bail so that the offenders of minor crimes did not languish in jails and unnecessarily overcrowd the prison, he added.
He said their monthly visits also served as a check on the performance of jail officials. DIG Jails also visits from time to time to keep a watch on the conditions prevailing in jails and the facilities provided to the prisoners.
The superintendent said that he had ensured an improvement in the food for inmates. "They get chicken twice a week, beef twice a week, egg curry thrice, rice once, some dessert once, besides vegetables and pulses," he disclosed.
"During the holy month of Ramazan, prisoners are served Iftari with dates, milk and sherbet," he said, adding that 'taraveeh' prayers were also held in all barracks.
Special meals were served on Eid along with vermicelli so that prisoners might also partake of the festive season, although they were separated from family and obviously felt homesick, he added.
Mubashar Khan asserted that prisoners were provided the best possible medical facilities, with the jail hospital manned by two doctors and three dispensers. All treatment was free, he added. "The facilities available here include ECG, ultra-sound, a theatre for minor surgeries, a TB centre and pathological lab. Serious patients are referred to Nishtar hospital," he said.
Prisoners are also provided education, he said, with some 1,500 of them currently acquiring conventional as well as religious education and attending lectures regularly. He lamented, however, that the jail was vastly overcrowded, adding, "with a capacity for only 1,600 inmates, it presently houses as many 3,447 prisoners".
He said Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had taken special measures to improve conditions at the jails and increase facilities for inmates, and with the new jail premises planned, the problem of overcrowding would also be solved shortly, he observed.