Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: A human rights report released Monday criticised Pakistan’s response to the coronavirus threat faced by tens of thousands of inmates stuck in overcrowded and often unsanitary prisons.
Instead of following through on promises to ease prison overcrowding made when the pandemic first hit, the government has actually increased its inmate population by over 6,000 between April and August, from 73,242 to 79,603. Some of the few who were freed were later rearrested.
The joint report by London-based Amnesty International and Justice Project Pakistan said inmates face a growing risk of infection, and called for renewed efforts to free certain prisoners, particularly the elderly, women and “prisoners of conscience.”
In the first weeks of the outbreak in February, the Islamabad High Court ordered the release of pretrial inmates charged with nonviolent crimes.
