Central Prison for Women has a dearth of female constables

Probe body blames superintendent of Youthful Offenders Industrial School for not informing seniors about suspension of perimeter wall’s construction

A committee formed to investigate the recent attempt of an under-trial female prisoner from the Central Jail Karachi found a dearth of female constables at the Central Prison for Women (CPW) housed inside the premises.

The inquiry report available with The News revealed that in all there were 12 posts of female prison staff, seven of whom were yet to be filled.

The CPW senior superintendent had written to the higher-ups, asking for 30 female constables through the Schedule of New Expenditure 2016-17. The official said that there was a shortage of female constables, which had made it difficult to keep an eye on the female inmates.

Prisons IG Nusrat Hussain Mangan had formed a committee to investigate Shaista Siddique’s April 29 attempt to escape from the central jail. The body’s report said that there was just one post of female assistant superintendent, which was also yet to be filled, and no post of female deputy superintendent.

In the letter, the CPW senior superintendent proposed to fill the post of assistant superintendent and to create the post of deputy superintendent by inducting 30 more female constables.

The committee’s report held the superintendent of the Youthful Offenders Industrial School (YOIS) responsible for not intimating the higher-ups about the contractor’s halting of the under-construction wall.

The superintendent claimed in his statement to the probe body that he had told the contractor to complete the work, but the contractor did not respond positively. In its report, the committee sought action against the superintendent for his alleged negligence.

Attempted prison break

Shaista was remanded to the CPW on April 29 by the order of the VIIth civil judge and the judicial magistrate (South) on the basis of an FIR registered at the Eidgah police station.

On that day, YOIS Superintendent Gul Muhammad Sheikh had, in addition to his own responsibilities, taken over the responsibilities of the CPW senior superintendent because she was on leave.

Sheikh said in his statement to the investigating committee that Shaista was a drug addict and that the doctor had advised her to take a shower after two hours.

The inmate was standing in front of the dispensary after the shower when a female constable deployed there ran off to look into a complaint of another prisoner.

Taking advantage of the lack of supervision, Shaista went to the nearby window of the dispensary and climbed to the top of the roof of the waiting area.

Then she accessed the connecting roof of the YOIS. The roof of the school’s rooms is closed due to the under-construction watchtower on the bombproof wall being constructed around the prison.

Shaista managed to get to that under-construction watchtower and used the shutters as stairs to land in the area between the existing main wall and the under-construction bombproof wall.

Then she approached another under-construction watchtower on the same bombproof wall and climbed it by using the shutters and accessed the nearby watchtower No 7 facing Ghausia Colony, where she was seen by the prison staff.

Constable Sughra followed her and tried to climb the wall, but she fell off of it and injured herself. Then she blew her whistle and sought help from the FC personnel on duty at watchtower No 7. Shaista was brought down by the staircase near the main wall.

Action on probe report

In the wake of the investigating body’s report, IG Mangan has ordered action against the contractor for halting the construction of the wall.

He also ordered expediting the recruitment process to overcome the shortage of female staff.

Earlier, he had suspended constables Mazhar Hussain and Abdul Shakoor, who were assigned to the under-construction bombproof wall, for their alleged failure in noticing Shaista’s movement. An inquiry on the charge of grave misconduct was initiated against them.

Besides departmental proceedings, an FIR was registered against the female inmate and the constables at the New Town police station.

The investigating officer, Sub-Inspector Saleem Khan, said Shaista was booked by the Eidgah police when she was trying to rob something from the Civil Hospital Karachi.

He said Shaista was a drug addict, and she had told the police in her statement that she had attempted jailbreak because she could not find any drugs there.  He claimed that the accused constables had obtained bail from the court.