LAHORE: As more than 260 ‘gazetted’ and nearly 4,000 junior officers have already left the Punjab Prisons, the Punjab government has finally become active to control the present situation and boost the morale of the force by addressing the long-standing issues of promotions and salary package.

In this regard, Provincial Minister for Prisons Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan has convened a meeting at the Civil Secretariat’s New Minister’s Block on coming Monday to review progress made so far on the enhancement of pay package for the prisons staff and awarding due promotions to head warders and chief warders.

It may be mentioned that the prisons staff for the last so many years had been demanding enhancement of their salary package at par with other security establishments such as Punjab police and the judiciary.

According to a notification, the minister has directed all the high command of the Punjab Prisons to come up with relevant records showing actions/progress made on various issues, especially enhancement of salary and new recruitments in the prisons department.

The meeting would also discuss the issue of wearing of (illegal) uniforms by all the DIGs, AIGs and the IG Prisons. In the past, this newspaper had carried a news item titled “Prisons department’s senior officers flout rules by wearing uniform” in which it was revealed all the senior command of the prisons department wear police uniforms in violation of laid down rules and regulations.

Besides other issues, the notification says that the meeting would also discuss expansion of PCOs in jails across Punjab, actions taken on the issue of employees working at officer’s residences, status of summary for 55 vehicles for prisons department out of 568 vehicles of the Punjab police, actions taken on complains being received against officers of different jails and transfer policy of officers/officials on completion of three years.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021