Lahore, July 23: Most of the women prisoners were subjected to physical abuse during interrogations by police, says a survey conducted by AGHS Legal Aid Cell Team while visiting different jails.
According to survey, female prisoners constitute 1.4 percent of the total prisoners held in Punjab jails with 876 adults and 5 juveniles. Regretfully, 67 percent of them are under-trial.
Punjab has the highest number of under-trial prisoners in Pakistan’s jails. The worst arrears in terms of pending cases are also in the province. Official statistics show that 12,25,879 cases remain pending in the subordinate courts with 1,44,942 in Sindh, 1,87,441 in the NWFP and 7,664 in Baluchistan. The National Judicial Policy has stressed to grant bails to the under-trials, issuing directions to giver priority the disposal of women and juvenile cases, but the women prisoners are awaiting justice.
The AGHS survey shows that 80 percent of all the female prisoners are mothers with 25 percent have upto 3 years old children. At least 80 percent women prisoners are unaware of the status of their legal proceedings and 35 percent have not engaged lawyers, say the surveys. It adds at least 70 percent of female prisoners are illiterate. Only 6 percent made allegations of abuse by jail authorities, 48 percent of women prisoners are accused of murder and 0.5 percent convicted to death, it says.
The survey maintains that 30 percent are accused of under Control of Narcotics Substance Act 1997, s.9b/c). The rest of the women are accused of Zina and other minor offences. Five juvenile female prisoners are under-trial in murder cases as well.
The survey reveals that the women prisoners continue to suffer imprisonment because of financial deprivation as many female convicts were unable to pay Diyat, Arsh and Daman. Though, it has been recommended on a number of occasions that the government should build a financial pool or secure funds out of Baitul Mal to pay on behalf of such female prisoners but the recommendations have been pending for several years and is not likely to materialize.
The AGHS has also recommended bail for anyone imprisoned because of financial restrain – particularly women and children. In addition, reasonable amount of surety for women and children should be fixed which is within the reach of under-trial female juvenile prisoners.
During the survey, Rashida Bibi, 70, while talking to The AGHS said that she was serving a 5-year prison sentence with a Rs 500,000 fine, as 5 Kg of drugs were found on her premises. According to the accused, she was framed by her ex-daughter-in-laws’ family as she was blamed for the divorce. Rashida is illiterate and therefore unaware of the charges registered against her. Due to her ignorance, neither Rashida appealed against her sentence, nor she filed appeal against. By now she has served almost one third of her punishment.
Another women prisoner, Mumtaz Saleem, has been in imprisonment for the past five years on charges of murder. She states that her request for a jail appeal was not immediately followed through. Instead she reports physical abuse. Furthermore, her records revealed that the Supreme Court freed Mumtaz Saleem on September 21, 2007 and the release warrant is dated October 12, 2007. Her release is still pending. No satisfactory explanation was given for delay in her release.
Dr Shahida, another prisoner, was imprisoned on charges of abduction. She denies all claims made against her and argues that no proper investigation took place. We discovered that the story Dr Shahida told and the FIR registered against her contradicted each other. Furthermore, the accused has not been allowed to view the FIR filed against her.
Female inmates are imprisoned without a proper investigations taking place as Dr Shahida was not allowed to view the FIR registered in her name, arguably due to the fact that she is literate and thus would have been able to question it.
The AGHS cited the case of another prisoner, Nasreen and her brothers, who were arrested on counts of murder. However her brothers were released, whereas Nasreen received a double death sentence. She claims she is innocent of the crime she is accused of and was not even present at the scene of the crime. She filed a jail appeal in the November of 2002. There is evident gender discrimination present in the system as Nasreen was given a double death sentence, whereas her brothers were set free on accounts of murder, despite the fact that according to Nasreen none of the arrested was present at the scene of the crime.
In another case, three teenage sisters, Fauzia, Shazia and Saba, are imprisoned as trial prisoners on accounts of abduction. They claim they are innocent and unaware of the whereabouts of the abducted woman. When they were interrogated about the whereabouts of the abducted woman and they were unable to give information, they were physical tortured by the police, the said. They were granted no bail by the court.
-Agencies