Sindh govt starts process to release elderly convicts from prisons.

Byline: Imran Ayub

KARACHI -- The Sindh government has started a process to release some male and female convicts who have crossed 65 and 60, respectively, while serving half of their sentences in prison, it emerged on Sunday.

The government is also going to release those convicts suffering from life-threatening diseases and need immediate treatment under a newly implemented prison law.

The fresh move came after over a century-old Prison Act of 1894 was discarded in June 2019 when the provincial cabinet had approved the new law - the Sindh Prisons and Correction Act 2019 - that aimed at confining all prisoners in safe custody, ensuring their fundamental rights and rehabilitation into society as law-abiding citizens.

'There was an immense need to replace the punitive 1894 law and the prison system with the one which could contribute to maintenance and protection of a just, peaceful and safe society by enforcing sentences given by courts, confining all prisoners in safe custody while ensuring their fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution and assisting the rehabilitation of prisoners and their reintegration into society through the provision of a reformation programme,' said a source citing reason behind the new law.

A list of 40 male and female prisoners has been prepared for their release

'The 1894 Prisons Act was primarily punitive in nature and it lacked reformation, clarity on policy and management and also lacked focus on development of prison human resources. The Sindh Prisons and Correction Services Act 2019 has 14 chapters and 84 sections in which the purpose of the prison system, basic principles and definitions have been defined. The act includes provision of well-being, minimum one visit for one hour per month, education, vocational training, health facilities and social and psychological services, provisions of a board of visitors, prisoners oversight committee visits, inspections, testing of food and inquiries into complaints.'

Under the same Act, he said, the provincial government had initiated the process to release those aged convicts who had spent half of their terms and those who were badly ill but were not convicted for any heinous crime or terrorism.

The provincial government had recently moved the case of more than half-a-dozen inmates who were found badly ill and needed immediate treatment. They were expected to be released from prisons within next few weeks, he added.

'Similarly, a first list of 40 prisoners or...