Daily Times, May 7, 2006
Torture becoming routine at Adiala Jail, says PCHR
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The fact-finding mission of Parliamentarians Commission for Human Rights (PCHR) has discovered massive human rights violations in Adiala Jail.
During the visit, the mission discovered cases of physical and mental torture, inhuman and degrading treatment of inmates and absence of basic facilities in the prison.
The mission demanded the senior officials improve the conditions at the prison on a priority basis, otherwise, it said, the issue would be raised in parliament. They also demanded the government invest in improving the conditions of prisons, which are meant to reform the prisoners not torture them.
After receiving complaints from prisoners, NGOs and media, a fact-finding mission of PCHR visited Adiala Jail to get an account of recent events. The mission consisted of Kashmala Tariq, PCHR executive director, members of national assembly Syed Javed Ali Shah, Haroon Ihsan Paracha and PCHR chief coordinator Shafique Chaudhry.
The mission visited punishment cells, ‘A’ class barracks, prison hospital and women’s ward in the absence of jail superintendent and other staff of the jail. Only Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Nadeem Kokab Warraich accompanied the delegation during the visit. The delegates interviewed the prisoners in the absence of prison officials to allow the prisoners to speak freely without fear of a backlash from the prison authorities.
The delegates said that prison authorities frequently used coercive techniques in routine affairs and to maintain law and order in the prison. Most prisoners showed signs of physical abuse.
The mission reported that torture victims were rarely given medical treatment. Overcrowding in prison cells along with absence of basic amenities was also a major problem at the prison.
Unlike other large prisons, the convicted felons and under-trial prisoners are not kept in separate barracks and prohibition on remissions ordered by the Supreme Court has further aggravated the situation, the mission reported.
During the visit of ‘A’ class barracks, detained MNA Khawaja Saad Raffique and former National Assembly speaker Yousaf Raza Gaillani briefed the mission on conditions at the prison. They said that prison authorities were torturing the inmates.
They said that during the recent hunger strike, officials had treated prisoners in a ‘degrading manner’.
DIG (Prisons) and jail superintendent said that Adiala jail held 5,400 prisoners whereas the prison was built for 1,964 prisoners. They said the prison had only 200 wardens and officials to manage the prisoners and the staff was underpaid and there were no basic facilities for the prison staff. Jail Superintendent Tariq Babar said the prison mafia was very resourceful and whenever the authorities tried to launch a campaign against them, they started a media trial of the prison authorities. This was why they had been unable to remove drugs from the prison, he said.
Kashmala Tariq, while talking to reporters, stressed the need for a complete overhaul of the criminal justice system in the country. “We should reform the prisoners and use bail, parole and remissions to solve the problem of overcrowding in our prisons,” she said.
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