LAHORE, June 23: The Punjab prisons department has moved a summary to the prime minister secretariat seeking approval for an across-the-board one-tenth remission to all convicted prisoners in the province.

Official sources told Dawn that the summary was forwarded to the PM secretariat a week ago after Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani showed his willingness to accord approval during a briefing held in Lahore on May 12.

They said the three-month remission announced earlier by the government had benefited 1,000 prisoners only out of 11,606 convicts involved in drug and minor offences. They said the summary, if approved, would benefit the remaining 10,606 such convicts languishing in 32 jails in the province.

Apart from these prisoners, there are 6,809 condemned prisoners who have already been awarded life imprisonment.

Former premier Nawaz Sharif had granted across-the-board five-year remission to the convicts on the eve of Pakistan’s golden jubilee celebrations in 1997.

The sources said the fate of around 250 foreign prisoners, including Indian national Sarabjit Singh and others convicted of spying, terrorism and border crossing, was not yet clear.

They said the fate around 140 local prisoners involved in terrorism, sectarian violence and spying would be decided after the approval of the summary by the prime minister.

Prisons provincial inspector general Main Farooq Nazir confirmed the move which, he said, would benefit all the convicts. He said there were around 10,606 prisoners who could get relief following the summery approval.