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Thursday March 28, 2024

Hundreds of prisoners languishing in jails due to non-payment

PESHAWAR: Hundreds of prisoners have been languishing behind bars in the country even after completing their sentences because they can’t pay “Diyat” or blood-money and the “Arsh” or “Daman” to secure their release.In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there are more than 23 such prisoners in different jails. Nine prisoners are Khan Wali

By Akhtar Amin
May 26, 2015
PESHAWAR: Hundreds of prisoners have been languishing behind bars in the country even after completing their sentences because they can’t pay “Diyat” or blood-money and the “Arsh” or “Daman” to secure their release.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there are more than 23 such prisoners in different jails. Nine prisoners are Khan Wali who has to pay “Diyat” of Rs360,209, Laiq Shah needing to pay Rs290,372, Imran Ali’s debt is Rs470,171 and is languishing in Bannu Central Prison, and Younas Khan ought to pay Rs350,000 to win his freedom. One Ubaidullah is imprisoned in Peshawar Central Prison as he too has been unable to pay.
Among other prisoners, Najibullah is in prison for not paying “Diyat” of Rs11,02,680, Roidad Rs 275,762,Noor Ali Shah for his inability to pay Rs360,209 and Abdul Jabbar who being unable to pay Rs500,000. All three are languishing in the Haripur Central Prison.
In order to provide soft loans to the prisoners to pay the “Diyat” the federal government on November 14, 2007 decided to form an administrative committee for management of funds under the chairmanship of the minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights.
It was also decided that secretary of Law, Justice and Human Rights Division and provincial home secretaries of the four provinces would be members of the committee. The government took up the issue and decided to raise funds after receiving the Supreme Court directions in 2006.
The previous PPP-led federal government had taken some steps for establishment of the fund when Senator Babar Awan was the federal law minister.It had decided that the funds would be allocated in the federal and provincial governments’ annual grants. Besides, another decision was that the government could seek assistance for the funds from national and international donor agencies.
It was decided that soft loans would be provided to the prisoners for business or any profitable work through surety bonds so that after getting released they would set up some business and used their profits to repay the loan.
The previous government had also raised some funds for the prisoners, but the procedure remained stuck in the ministry concerned and no soft loans were provided to the prisoners.
In September 2011, the federal government urged the provincial governments to help raise the “Diyat” and “Arsh” and “Daman” funds from the existing Rs35 million to Rs65 million to help the convicts who had already completed their imprisonment. However, the provincial governments failed to reply positively to the federal government’s request.
Since then no progress has been made to establish the fund for the prisoners. Just the summary was moved to the ministry concerned but the issue remained on paper only.On December 14, 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that Diyat (blood money) laws were not against the Constitution or Islam, but that the government should provide prisoners with jobs and soft loans to enable them to pay their fines.
Noor Alam Khan, the chairman of the Voice of Prisoners (VoP), a non-governmental organization, told The News that the previous PPP-led federal government had taken some initiatives for allocating funds for the prisoners, but nothing materialized.
He suggested that both the provincial and federal governments should do legislation or make provision for the needed funds through administrative orders and help secure the release of hundreds of prisoners and also reduce the burden on the government exchequer. He said that currently 403 prisoners since years are imprisoned all over the country because they cannot pay the blood-money to get out of prisons.
As per the Prisons Department report, these prisoners belong to poor families. An official of the department said he was making efforts to collect funds from the philanthropists to enable the prisoners to pay the money and gain freedom.