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Govt to release aged prisoners: Moin

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to release on parobe or probation male prisoners of above 65 years and females above 60 years of age, involved in offences other than murder.

This was disclosed here on Tuesday by the Minister for Interior and Narcotics Control, Lt. Gen Moin-ud-Din Haider (Retd) in a meeting with Penal Reform International (PRI) UK President Ahmed Othman.

The minister said a number of steps are being taken to improve living conditions of the jail inmates including women, children, old people and foreigners, apart from providing them relief, legal aid, medical facilities, technical and vocational training enabling them to utilise their time in a positive and constructive manner.

He said under instructions from Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf a task force is being set up to prepare a package of jail reforms.

The interior minister said the proposed task force is being set up to work on the reforms aiming at the improvement of living conditions of the prisoners, preparation of plans for their rehabilitation and reducing burden on jails by providing relief to juvenile groups and convicts involved in petty offences.

The minister said that nearly 20,000 prisoners involved in petty offences have already been released.

Referring to the refresher courses for the jail staff, the minister said a considerable advance has been made in improving their eduation and training. For this purpose, the Federal Institute for Training of Prison Staff, Lahore, is being re-activated.

He said the government is giving top priority to the entire process of providing justice at all levels on modern lines and for this purpose the subject of criminology is being introduced at university level.

However, the minister said, jail reforms being an important task NGOs and human rights groups should come forward and play their role in rehabilitation and provision of legal aid, especially to the juvenile groups.

Othmani offered full assistance and cooperation saying PRI can assist and cooperate with Pakistan in training their prison staff.

He expressed his organisation's willingness to provide the Federal Institute of Training for Prison Staff with facilities of computerisation, library improvement, furniture and other equipment and preparation of syllabi. APP