Instead of fulfilling promises to reduce the criminal overcrowding of the first epidemic, the Pakistani government actually increased its criminal population through more than 6,000 prisoners between April and August, from 73,242 to 79,603. Some of the few who were released were arrested again.
The joint report through Amnesty International and the London-based Pakistan Justice Project said detainees are on a growing threat of infection and called for greater efforts for some prisoners, especially the elderly, women and “prisoners of conscience. “
“As Pakistan faces the wave of COVID-19, prisoners remain dangerously threatened, as the government has not only failed to reduce overcrowding, but has made it worse,” said Rimmel Mohydin, ‘South Asia’s regional activist for Amnesty International.
In the first weeks of the outbreak in February, the Islamabad High Court ordered the release of those accused of nonviolent crimes, as well as those who had been denied bail in the past. In the southern province of Sindh, 519 prisoners were to be released on bail.
But last March, the Supreme Court suspended all bail orders granted due to the virus.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling has slowed national momentum toward the criminal population and even led to the re-arrest of criminals,” the report says.
Even when the Supreme Court allowed the deaths of some prisoners due to the age or length of sentencing, they never were, said Sarah Belal, executive director of Justice Project Pakistan.
Detained women who have been ordered by Prime Minister Imran Khan to be released if they meet certain criteria, such as those discovered or convicted of misdemeanors, Belal said.
Khan made no comment on the 37-page report.
The country’s criminal formula was already dangerously overcrowded before the pandemic; Built to accommodate fewer than 58,000 people, it houses some 80,000 inmates, according to the World Prison Brief, presented through the Institute for Criminal Policy and Justice Research at the University of London.
Punjab province, the country’s most populous province, stopped reporting positive cases in prisons in April, down from 86; However, in response to a right to information request, the report found that 16,534 tests for the virus had been performed in seven months in Punjab prisons, of which 1,345 were positive.
The report called for the prompt communication of all “prisoners of conscience”, but also urged the government to “seriously consider” the situation of pre-trial prisoners.
Rights teams also need a wide variety of prisoners, such as the elderly who have served the maximum of their sentence, inmates serving misdemeanor sentences, and those with physical fitness problems, “including those with weakened immune systems, because of the greater dangers they entail. “a COVID-19 infection would mean for your health and your life. “
“The prison passing government ensures that the released user has a quarantined position and the local passing government is informed that the user has been released,” Mohydin added.
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