Around 2,400 inmates in jails across Pakistan are suffering from contagious diseases like HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis, said a report of Ministry of Human Rights which was submitted in Islamabad High Court on Saturday.
According to its break-up, in the prisons in Punjab, 257 inmates are suffering from HIV, 116 in Sindh, 39 in KPK, and 13 are in Balochistan. Hepatitis affected prisoners in Punjab are 1081, 462 are in Sindh, 208 are in KPK and 72 are in Balochistan. Similarly, TB patients in Punjab jails are 87, 52 in Sindh, 27 in KPK and 7 are in Balochistan. Prisoners suffering from mental disease in Punjab jails are 290, 50 in Sindh, 235 in KPK and 11 are in Balochistan, and about other illnesses, 1,480 are in Punjab, 50 in Sindh, 662 in KPK and no prisoner in Balochistan.
The report said Pakistan Prison Rules contain provisions for adequate medical and legal assistance. However, the primary problem is that of implementation of these rules. The prison departments' data from across Pakistan revealed that almost half of the sanctioned posts of medical staff remained vacant.
To worsen the situation, not every prison is equipped with medical and dental equipment and very few prisons have functioning labs and paramedical staff. The prison authorities fail to provide ambulances to transfer prisoners to hospitals in cases of emergencies.
The report noted that the prisoners are not being aware of their rights under the Pakistan Prison Rules. Prisoners are not adequately informed about their rights at the times of sentencing and therefore they continue to face violations of their rights taking place in the prison premises.
Although the prisons in Punjab have the rights of prisons posted on signboards and prisons in KPK and Sindh have similar pamphlets of these rights pasted on the front wall of the barracks, it appears that the prisoners do not read these rights and remain unaware of their rights.
The report said that desegregation of the prison population reveals that among the prison population, an alarming proportion comprises under-trial prisoners. In all four provinces, the under-trial prisoners constitute almost (if not more than) half of the prison population. Even though these prisoners have not yet been convicted of any offence, they are languishing in prisons and contributing to overcrowding.
In Punjab total prisoners in jails are 45,324 while under-trial prisoners are 25,054, in KPK total prisoners are 9,900 while under-trial prisoners are 7,067, in Sindh out of total 16315 prisoners, under-trial are 11,488, and in Balochistan there are 2,122 prisoners and out of them 1,244 are under-trial prisoners.
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