Ban on jail wardens recruitment lifted

LAHORE:Punjab Cabinet's Standing Committee on Legislative Business (SCCLB) has approved several matters including lifting the ban on recruitment of jail warders, establishing session courts in two tehsils and high security zones in various areas during a meeting held at Civil Secretariat on Wednesday.

Chairman Committee and Minister Parliamentary Affairs, Cooperatives, Environment Protection Basharat Raja presided over the meeting via video link from Rawalpindi. Law Minister Khurram Shehzad Virk, Secretary Law Akhtar Javed, Secretary Specialised Healthcare Dr Ahmed Javed Qazi and other relevant officers also participated.

The SCCLB approved the establishment of session courts in Tehsil Darya Khan of district Bhakkar and Tehsil Chowk Sarwar Shaheed of district Muzaffargarh on the request of the Home Department. The Cabinet Committee decided to give remission to Hindu, Sikh and Christian prisoners in Punjab jails for taking educational courses of their respective faith.

Basharat Raja directed the Inspector General Prisons Punjab to prepare undisputed religious courses for the minority prisoners and get consent of prominent scholars of the respective religions and the Department of Education as well. The Cabinet Committee also approved the remission for those prisoners who took training courses organised by TEVTA.

Approving the recruitment of warders to address the shortage of staff in prisons, Basharat said that recruitment of more educated people can help improve the culture of prisons. “Educational qualification metric is fine, but there should be room for more educated people to become candidates”, directed the chair.

The Standing Committee on Legislative Business deferred the decision to set up 115 Special Sexual Offenses Investigation Units (SSOIUs) to investigate cases of sexual crimes, objecting that women are usually the victims of sexual abuse therefore, the proposed SSOIUs should be staffed entirely by women or appoint a specific number of women. In this regard, the final decision was entrusted to the sub-committee under SCCLB.

The Cabinet Committee approved other decisions including reconstitute the Charities Commission under the Punjab Charities Act, to establish the Institute of Urology and Transplantation in Rawalpindi to establish three independent environmental tribunals in the cities of Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi.

The appointment of five members of DG Khan Development Authority was also approved. MPAs Hanif Khan Patafi, Sardar Ali Khan Dreshak, Shahina Tayyab Khosa and two technical members have been added to the Development Authority. The approval to lift the ban on the issue of arms licenses in Punjab has been subject to the directions from the Chief Minister.