On January 10 a newspaper carried a report that the MMA government in NWFP has allowed prisoners in jails all over the province to keep wives in jail twice a year for three days each. The step has probably been taken from a precedent set during Caliph Omar's (RA) period when he for the first time sanctioned "P Leave" (annual holidays) for the soldiers participating in jihad on far-flung battlefronts so that they could stay with the families for at least one or two months.
But the MMA government's decision may have a number of repercussions. Already the jails lack enough space and funds to build sufficient accommodation for families, taking care of, of course, purdah and privacy. It would also not be possible for jail authorities to implement the decision in its letter and spirit because this twice a year three-day exercise for each prisoner would require booking of the limited accommodation spanning the whole year.
There would hardly be a chance to find it empty and there is a possibility for 'professional bread earners' to make it a source of bribe, which is already rampant in jails.
However, one thing is clear that the MMA government has tried its hard to emerge as different from other provincial governments by passing Shariah law and not implementing it, by introducing Hasbah law and not tabling it in its own dominated assembly, and by announcing Nizam-i-Salat and failing to implement it. Its new decision of allowing prisoners to keep their wives is also likely to fail because of administrative as well as social reasons.
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