KARACHI, Oct 3: A seminar on state of Pakistani prisons held here on Thursday called for a new legislation to ensure that prisoners’ dignity was duly taken care and they were treated according to the jail manual and other internationally accepted rules.

The two-day seminar, first of its kind held in Pakistan, on “Pakistan Prison Visitor Manual” which began at the Sindh Judicial Academy, Clifton, under the auspices of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Pakistan chapter expressed concern over social and judicial issues facing most of the prisoners in Pakistan.

The participants called for regular visits to prisons by parliamentarians to help them formulate or amend the laws governing prisons and prisoners. The country’s prison system was developed by British rulers in 1850s.

Glenn James Ross from the School of Law and Justice, Edith Cowan University, Australia who was the key speaker-cum-trainer at the seminar emphasised regular inspections of penal institutions and services by qualified and experienced inspectors appointed by a competent authority.

These inspectors could include ex-officio officials like commissioners and district and session judges, and non-officio officials appointed by the competent authority, he suggested.

The inspectors could visit barracks, wards, beds, buildings and food arrangement and other associated facilities for the prisoners and they could examine any book, paper and record in the prison and might interview a prisoner to their satisfaction, he said.

The participants were informed that jail authorities mostly allowed inspectors to interview only one prisoner at a time for a limited time with certain conditions.

Mr Ross said the inspectors should be provided every facility for observing the state of prisons and its management and access to all parts of the prison along with quick provision of required information.

The participants agreed that the inspectors should, beside working hours, be allowed to visit jails in the afternoon and during nights and even make surprise visits to take account of real condition of prisoners as mostly abuses and misuse of force against the prisoners were reported after office hours, particularly during night.

The participants urged that no prisoner should be punished for any statement given to inspectors to air his grievances unless an enquiry made by a magistrate proved it false.

Mr Ross said: “We should follow what is generally accepted as being a good principle and practice in treatment of prisoners and management of institutions.”

He suggested there must be a regulatory authority even to see prisons’ structure and there must be an effective investigation system to stop all wrong practices in prisons, which included degrading of prisoners in the name of body search and strip checking.

He referred to the United Nations’ Convention Against Torture and Other Degrading Practices and was informed by a participant that Pakistan was a signatory to the convention but lacked proper implementation.

A participant said that in Malir district jail privacy and dignity of prisoners was not taken care of. Even strip search of prisoners was carried out in an open place and in the presence of a number of fellow inmates and police officials in gross violation of international rules protecting the rights and dignity of prisoners, he said.

Mr Ross commented that it must be done with minimum possible degradation of prisoners and recommended use of courts and legal process to redress wrongdoings as well as corrective actions at prisons.

He said that a lawyer’s access to his client prisoner was very essential and suggested that a legislation be made to ensure that prisoners were treated according to the country’s jail manual. He said that inspectors could write down their comments in the visitors’ book at prisons.

The participants included former inspector general of Sindh police, Aftab Nabi, general secretary of Saibaan International Welfare Organisation, Haider Ali Haider, social workers Saleem Aziz Khan, Rashid Qureshi and Haya Eman Zahid, Sheikh Junaid Mir Advocate, Akmal Waseem from Legal Aid Office and district and sessions judges Khadim Hussain Tunio, Rashida Asad, Farzana Anwer and Fahmeed-ul-Qadeer. —APP