The purpose of the jail inspection was to remove the hardships and sufferings of the prisoners and streamline the system of administration of justice in a manner that these prisoners get the justice done expeditiously.

It was further targeted to trace those hapless prisoners who have no body outside to pursue their cases, and to evolve a mechanism for their release, if they are otherwise entitled for the same.

The Chief Justice and the Judges of the Islamabad High Court during the visit of the prison took keen interest for the welfare of the prisoners and expressed a vision to build such a system of dispensation of justice whereby no one in the prison is left unattended or abandoned.

This inspection is further mandated to evaluate the implementation of National Judicial Policy as ordained by the Hon?able Chief Justice of Pakistan and to further give policy direction to the district judiciary and other subordinate courts.

Following the directions of the Chief Justice, Islamabad High Court, the District and Sessions Judge, collected the data of under trials, convicts, condemned female and juvenile prisoners pertaining to the Islamabad Capital Territory in order to alleviate their miseries and expedite the process of dispensation of justice.

According to the data, the Central Jail, Rawalpindi has 1214 inmates belonging to Islamabad Capital Territory, including 54 condemned, 211 convicted and 948 under trial prisoners, which includes 52 females and 15 juvenile prisoners. There are 262 under trial prisoners whose cases are pending in Sessions Court, Islamabad, whereas there are 573 under trial prisoners, who are facing trials at the magisterial level.

The Anti-terrorism Court, the Court of Special Judge Central, Customs Court and Banking Courts have 42, 9 and 2 under trial prisoners respectively. There are 37 unconfirmed condemned prisoners whose appeals are pending in the Islamabad High Court, 13 condemned prisoners whose appeals are pending before the Supreme Court of Pakistan and there are two condemned prisoners having mercy petitions pending before the President of Pakistan.

There are two convicted prisoners who are confined in jail on account of non-payment of Diyat, Arsh, Daman and compensation etc. Similarly there are nine convicted prisoners, who are confined in the jail due to non-payment of fine in narcotics and other cases.

The scrutiny reveals that there are 10 convicted prisoners who have become eligible for their release on paroles as they have served a continuous sentence for more than 10 years but their cases have not been moved by the jail authorities for consideration by the competent authority.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011