As many as 6600 prisoners involved in petty crimes are on probation and 50 convicted in various crimes including murders are on parole on the orders of various courts and the home secretary Punjab.
These inmates were granted probation by the courts under Probation Offenders Ordinance (POO) 1960 and parole by the home secretary Punjab under Parole Good Conduct Prisoners Probationer Release Act (PGCPPR) 1926 and Rules 1927.
According to act, the prisoner involved in petty crimes, minor offences and having no criminal tendency are eligible to get parole on the recommendation of concerned District Police Officer (DPO) and District Co-ordination Officer (DCO).
According to act, the convicted person will have to complete one third of his substantive sentence excluding all remission awarded by the competent authority inside the jail. He is entitled to avail parole facility subject to the payment of fine and compensation imposed on him by the courts.
As the prisoner completes mandatory imprisonment, the superintendent of jail is bound to forward his case to the views that the prisoner came under the ambit of parole rule and act. The directorate of Probation and Parole Punjab invited the comments from the concerned DPO and DCO either he is involved in any criminal group, tendency or he is away from all such activities and is a peaceful citizen.
They were asked to provide information that the desiring prisoners were not involved in other criminal case, no appeal was pending in any court and they were not defaulters of fine and compensation awarded to him.
On the recommendations of the DPO and DCO, the home secretary will grant parole release licence to these inmates. They would be handed over to the enlisted employers including taxpayer citizen, notable, landlords and government officers with the P&P Punjab. The employers would deposit Rs 400 for domestic parolee and Rs 600 for agriculture and industrial parolee in the personal accounts of parolees.
This amount, the earning of the inmates, he would draw it after completion of his imprisonment, an official of Probation and Parole department said.
He further said that the criminals involved in heinous crimes like harbouring criminals, offence against state, armed forces, treason, terrorism, robbery, dacoity, rape, gang rape, sodomy and hired murderers would not be entitled to avail the parole blessing.
The official said that there are 20-25 registered employers in the city taking facility of parole prisoners as house servants and at animal farms and factories.
The Home department granted parole to 23 inmates confined in various jails of the province in minor crimes since July, 2005. These prisoners are Jabber Hussain, Kher Din, Ranjha, Muhammad Bashir, Muhammad Younis, Faqir Muhammad, Muhammad Tufail, Muhammad Asif, Zeshan Haider and Khuda Bukhsh of central jail Lahore, Salah-ud-Din, Bilal Ahmed, Nazar Muhammad of central jail Bahawalpur, Ashiq Hussain central jail Multan, Zafar Iqbal, Muhammad Sabtain, Muhammad Shafi of central Faisalabad, Jahangir Hayat, Ehsanullah of central jail Mianwali, Rashid Ahmed district jail Kasur, Muhammad Hanif central jail Rawalpindi, Muhammad Fiqz central jail Gujranwala and Shakeel Ahmed central jail Mianwali.
They were working at residences, dairy farms and factories of the employers and the employers were responsible to provide food and other daily-use items to them.