FAISALABAD: Three district jail employees have been suspended from service and transferred to other jails as token punishment following a clash between two prisoner groups inside the jail barracks.

Six prisoners Muhammad Arsalan, Faisal Nabeel, Bilal, Yaseen, Irfan Ali and Waseem Hassan have been shifted to the Central Jail as punishment. Waseem Hassan is a convicted prisoner while others are under-trial prisoners. The jail superintendent had requested the higher-ups for transfer of these prisoners so that peace could be maintained inside the jail.

A couple of days ago, a group of prisoners barged into the barrack of their rival group where they thrashed each other despite the fact that scores of jail employees were on duty inside the jail and near barracks.

The jail employees suspended from their services are head warder Ijaz Ahmed and warders Muhammad Naeem and Khaliq Dad. Ahmed and Naeem have been transferred to the Toba Tek Singh district jail while Khaliq Dad has been transferred to the Jhang district jail. These three employees have been transferred on administrative grounds and relieved from the district jail with an instruction to join their duties immediately.

Jail sources say transfer of the accused can be a problem for the district jail officials if anyone of them is booked on charges of sectarian nature, or any court or high officials have restricted their shifting to any other prison or fixed their cases’ hearing inside the jail premises.

DIG Prisons Saeedullah Gondal has also asked Jail Superintendent Ali Akbar to submit a detailed report on the issue.

ISO CERTIFICATION: The ISO 9001-2015 certificate has been issued to the Electronic Khidmat Markaz (Facilitation Centre) of the administration for its services.

Earlier, some police stations of Faisalabad also obtained the ISO certification.

With the help of the district administration services like domicile, Fard issuance, registry-related matters, computerised national identity card, character certificate, learner driving license, building map approval and completion certificate are being provided at the centre.

Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali said the centre obtained ISO certification from an international public service quality testing company. He said the certificate had been issued after scrutiny and assurance that the facilities provided to public were in line with international standards.

While visiting the facilitation centre, the DC gave the certificate to the center manager, Mustafa Sattar.

The DC also reviewed the procedures for providing services to the applicants at the counters of different departments. He said getting the ISO certificate was recognition of standard and ideal services. He said under the vision of Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar, the district administration had supported the Khidmat Markaz for providing the best and rapid services to the applicants under one roof.

Mr Ali asked the management of the centre to continue providing services as per international standards so that the confidence of the people could be restored.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2021