Pakistan: Women prisoners in Peshawar jail suffering due to lack of separate prison

Sources told The Express Tribune that in the past in Central Prison Peshawar there was a separate section for the women inmates in which there was a hospital and all other facilities including kitchen and barracks were available.

It was very spacious and women from the entire province were shifted to Peshawar once convicted by the courts.

“In 2007 it was decided to demolish the old building and rebuild a multi story building in order to increase the capacity of the prison. After which the old building was demolished which was the product of very mature planning. The women section was also demolished and now all the women have been put inside one barrack which is not very spacious,” he said, adding that there were 58 female prisoners in the Peshawar Prison of which 25 were convicted and the rest were under trial prisoners.

“Some of these women have infants and toddlers with them. All of them have been put inside a barrack as the separate women section inside the prison is gone forever,” said the official, adding that women inside the prison are living like animals because in the planning no one paid attention to the female prisoners at all.

“The old building was built on modern lines taking into account all the needs of inmates. They were provided ample private space. The roofs were high so they provided a cold environment during the summer heats of Peshawar and there were separate hospitals for women and men kept in the jail,” he said, adding that in the new building attention was only paid to accommodating as many inmates as possible.

“No one thought of the comfort of the prisoners and women were forgotten altogether in the planning,” he blamed, adding that because of this the new building was not as strong as the old one nor any attention was paid to the weather factor so in the summer it becomes hot like a furnace.