‘Legislation to protect prisoners’ rights’

Islamabad : A spokesman for the Ministry of Human Rights (MoHR) Thursday said the government had made a number of effective legislation to ensure protecting rights of prisoners.

In a short span of time, the ministry made milestone achievement in protecting the rights of prisoners, spokesman, who is also MoHR Director General Muhammad Arshad told APP. He said the ministry had fully implemented the Criminal Justice Legal Aid & Justice Authority Legal Act 2020, which was aimed at providing legal, financial and other assistance to the poor and vulnerable segments of the society in criminal cases in jails.

The Legal Aid and Justice Authority Act, 2020 was passed by the Parliament on March 24, 2020 and brought into effect on October 6, 2020.The spokesman said the Ministry of Human Rights also carried out a consultation on Draft Forced or Involuntary Disappearances (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2019 on January 9, 2019 that was attended by Chairman Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights, senior members from the Ministry of Interior, Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Law and justice. Similarly, the ministry prepared the Torture, Custodial Death and Custodial Rape (Prevention and Punishment) Bill, 2018, which was also in the vetting process.