LAHORE: The Punjab government is considering establishing first-ever state-of-the-art prison -- Maximum Security Jail -- in Pakpattan district, it is learnt.

The idea to set up a limited scale jail (which should be far away from populated area and have no easy access) with all modern gadgetry, computerised locking system and provision of maximum single cell facility was floated during a law and order meeting held with Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in the chair around three weeks ago.

Sources privy to the meeting told Dawn on Sunday that all 32 jails in Punjab were either designed, constructed or expanded on pattern of 150-year-old jail system with provision of maximum barracks, minimum cells accommodating one to four prisoners and least IT-based security and monitoring system.

They said the chief minister was informed that mismanagement, lack of proper supervision, security loopholes and corruption were major concerns in the exiting jail pattern because of over-crowding factor and maximum manual handlings.

Pak-Turk team will be formed to design layout

The CM finally floated the idea to establish a full-fledged jail, immediately approved 160 acre land in Pakpattan and later contacted the Turkish government for seeking technical support.

Sources said a high-powered delegation led by Punjab Minister retired Col Shuja Khanzada and comprising the provincial home secretary, the prisons inspector general and the Punjab Board of Information Technology chairman paid a visit to Turkey from May 4 to 10 to inspect high security jails (HSJs) following the chief minister’s directive.

They said the delegation visited IT-designed high security jails of Ankara and Istanbul for the purpose.

The director general of Prisons Management System Turkey informed the Pakistani delegation that Turkey had 346 jails including 13 HSJs and all were designed to meet modern-day requirements. Turkish jails facilitate 250 to 750 prisoners and most of those have courtyards attached with each cell which houses one prisoner to eight.

Sources said the delegation was further told that 80 more modern jails with small set-up and easy handling were being constructed in Turkey. The delegates witnessed automatic locking system, extensive use of CCTVs and laser technology to avert security breaches in and around jails for proper monitoring of jail staff and inmates.

They said the delegates sought expertise from the Turkish government for IT-led security technology and architectural design of the jail besides training needs of the staff.

They said the chief minister was likely to form a joint committee of Pakistani and Turkish officials to start work on the layout of the jail next week.

According to a Punjab jail official, up to 5,000 prisoners are languishing in each provincial jail and each barrack contains up to 300 prisoners which is the root cause of all evils.

He says it is humanly impossible to search all prisoners and keep a vigil on them on a daily basis, so the concept of maximum security jail will help redress monitoring and checking issues.

When contacted, IG Prisons Mian Farooq Nazeer confirmed the government’s move to establish such a prison in the province.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2014