Rights-based prison reforms pledged
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• Chief ministers commit to reducing unnecessary incarceration, improving infrastructure
• CJP terms reforms ‘shared institutional responsibility’
• Maryam says prisons should be reflective of values, effectiveness of justice system
• Afridi calls for reforms to ‘start from Adiala’
ISLAMABAD: The provinces on Thursday reaffirmed their commitment to sustained prison reforms, with all the chief ministers acknowledging that these reforms were not just an administrative necessity, but a constitutional and public safety imperative.
The National Conference on Prison Reforms, hosted by the Supreme Court under the auspices of the National Judicial (Policy-Making) Committee (NJPMC), aimed at building a nationally coordinated prison reform framework with the provincial governments.
While signing the Islamabad Declaration on Prison Reforms, Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz, Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM Sohail Afridi, and Balochistan CM Sarfraz Bugti affirmed the importance of prison reforms.
In his keynote address, Chief Justice Yahya Afridi observed that prisons reflected the true pulse of the criminal justice system and emphasised that meaningful reform required shared institutional responsibility and sustained provincial leadership. He also asked for the resolve that the criminal justice system remain grounded in human dignity.
During the conference, CM Maryam shared her own harrowing experience of solitary confinement that, according to her, translated into improvements across the provincial prisons, whereas CM Afridi specifically mentioned the Adiala jail, where his party chief is jailed, and sought better amenities for those visiting him.
However, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, while announcing the Islamabad Declaration on Prison Reforms, said reforms in the colonial-era jail laws were not for the benefit of prisoners like Nawaz Sharif or Imran Khan but for thousands of ordinary inmates languishing in jail.
CM Afridi insisted that the reform process should begin from Adiala jail, where former PM Imran Khan is currently incarcerated.
While speaking about the concept of e-visits, the KP CM requested CJP Afridi to ensure that Imran could communicate with his two sons living abroad. He also asked the CJP to order the jail admin to erect shades so that the visitors who reach Adiala jail to meet their incarcerated leader do not endure the scorching heat.
CM Maryam said the experiences she endured during her imprisonment had changed her forever and helped her understand the responsibility of the state towards those in custody. It helped her understand that the jail should never become a sentence against human dignity, she added. The Punjab CM also shared a presentation to showcase how her government brought improvements by improving facilities in all the prisons of Punjab.
Prison should not be a place of confinement but reflective of values of the society and effectiveness of the justice system, she stressed, adding Punjab has 45 correctional centres across the province which currently house 69,000 inmates against the authorised capacity of 39,000. But the challenge was not the overcrowding since three-fourths of the jail population consisted of undertrial prisoners.
She recalled based on her own experience how she introduced emergency panic buttons inside prison cells throughout Punjab for immediate assistance in case of need. Meanwhile, CM Murad Ali Shah said that the rehabilitation policy was the cornerstone of the Sindh government’s vision to ensure that no inmate should remain unrepresented merely because they could not afford legal assistance.
‘Coordinated national effort’
Meanwhile, the declaration shared a commitment to a coordinated national effort to reform provincial prison systems and recognised that Pakistan’s prisons were operating under serious strain with overcrowding, a high proportion of undertrial prisoners, inadequate infrastructure, limited access to healthcare and mental health services and insufficient opportunities for rehabilitation, education and vocational training.
The chief ministers committed to reducing unnecessary incarceration, particularly of undertrial prisoners, by strengthening access to bail, legal aid, probation, parole, diversion and other non-custodial alternatives, especially for women, children, persons with disabilities, persons with mental health conditions and those detained for minor, poverty-related offences.
The declaration also committed to reviewing provincial laws, rules, policies and administrative practices governing arrest, detention, sentencing, prison management, probation, parole and rehabilitation with a view to reducing overcrowding and aligning prison administration with constitutional and human rights standards.
The declaration asked to improve prison conditions through increased investment in infrastructure, sanitation, nutrition, healthcare, mental health services, complaint redressal and safeguards against torture, ill-treatment and neglect.
It asked for promoting rehabilitation and reintegration by expanding education, vocational training, psychosocial support, drug treatment, skills development and post-release support for persons in custody.
It also asked for strengthening coordination across the criminal justice system, including prison departments, police, prosecution, probation and parole services, legal aid institutions, health and social welfare departments and the judiciary, to support efficient case processing and timely access to justice.
The declaration also committed to reporting regularly on implementation to the agreed national prison reform coordination mechanism, including progress on reducing overcrowding, improving detention conditions, expanding non-custodial alternatives, and strengthening rehabilitation services.
Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2026 ...