Dated: January 15, 2009

 

CHIEF COORDINATOR PCHR APPRECIATES SUPREME COURT DECISION TO RELEASE THE JUVENILE PRISONERS

 

 

Islamabad:- Chief Coordinator Parliamentarians Commission for Human Rights (PCHR) Mr. Shafique Chaudhry in a press release highly appreciated the landmark and historic decision of the Supreme Court to release some of the juvenile prisoners from Adyala Jail and ordering four provincial IGPs to present complete record of all the juvenile prisoners of four provinces before it. After the repeated visits and constantly highlighting the plight of prisoners in general and that of juvenile prisoners in particular in different jails and police lock offs in Pakistan, the Chief Coordinator PCHR highly appreciated the Supreme Court decision and said that, “It is a hallmark decision taken on the news item published in local press about the visit of Chief Coordinator PCHR along with other civil society representatives to Adyala on January 1, 2009. Chief Coordinator said that, “The present government claimed that it is fully committed to the cause of human rights. However, he pointed out that the human rights situation in the country is not improved and it requires serious practical measures on the part of government to address wide range of abuses of human rights in the country. Referring to the plight of prisoners and worsening conditions of prisons, he said that, “Due to our old fashioned Criminal Justice System, prison management system needs a complete overhauling. In modern and democratic societies prisons are supposed to be the rehabilitations and reformatory institutions”. He said that, “Protection of the rights of the citizens is the primary duty of the state but in present era the state can not do it alone without the coordination of civil societies and media.

 

He also appreciated the reactivation of the human rights cell in the Supreme Court and at the same time said that there are still some lacunas in the present criminal justice system that needs to be addressed on urgent basis on the part of government. He further said that the recent decision of the Supreme Court provided a ray of hope to the expectations of the millions of Pakistanis to act against the highhandedness of the police. He said that Supreme Court being the apex court of the country is expected to take more and more action like this to become the real guardian of the protection of human rights in the country.   

 

He assured that PCHR would go hand in hand with the government to highlight the issue of human rights violation in future and bring them into government notice for necessary actions.

 

 

 

 

 

Media Cell, PCHR