Medical equipments worth Rs144m will be procured for prisoners: minister

LAHORE: Punjab caretaker Home Minister Shaukat Javed said the Punjab Prisons Department serves as executing arm of criminal justice system.

The indispensible medical equipments worth Rs144 million will be procured for the prisoners including X-Ray machine, ECG, ultrasound and OPT. Technical training centres at 10 jails will be established in collaboration with Tevta. New district jails will be constructed in Chiniot, Nankana Sahib, Khushab, Chakwal, Lahore and Rawalpindi. Judicial lockup at Gojra, Pindi Gheb, Musa Virk and Kot Addu will be converted into sub-jails soon.

The minister disclosed this Thursday during his visit to the district jail Lahore. IG Prisons Mirza Shahid Saleem Baig briefed the minister in detail about the working of the department. IG prisons told him that at present Punjab Prisons Department has 41 prisons that include 9 central jails, 26 district jails, 2 sub-jails and 4 special jails. He said the staff was getting training from NAPA, Pakistan Army and Punjab Police. He said Punjab Prisons Department has responded promptly to the threats associated with terrorism in the past few years by training and equipping its personnel with modern arms and ammunition.

He said to eliminate the use of mobile phones on the premises of jails; cellular jammers have been installed in 30 high-risk prisons, whereas 8 more jammers will also be installed in the current fiscal year.

Similarly, installation of integrated Security Surveillance Solution at 17 high-risk prisons has been completed and will be installed at remaining 24 prisons in the current fiscal year. He said prisoners are classified according to their gender, age, type of offence and stage of trial. IG Prisons said prisoners are getting religious, formal and vocational education. Vocational training centres have been established at 15 jails where vocational training is imparted to the inmates to heal them with post-release reintegration into the society as bonafide citizens.