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| Tuesday, July 25, 2000 -- Rabi-us-Sani 22, 1421 A.H. | |
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Kabul handed over list of terrorists: Moin ISLAMABAD: The Afghan government has been approached for repatriation of those involved in sectarian violence and terrorist activities in Pakistan, Interior Minister Lieutenant General (retd) Moinuddin Haider said on Monday. He was speaking at a luncheon he hosted in honour of the editors of the national dailies. The minister said a list has been handed over to the Afghan authorities for the repatriation of wanted persons. He said that such elements would be tried in a court of law for charges framed against them. He said the government has also taken various measures to bring back home those who had looted the national exchequer. In this regard, he said extradition treaties have been signed with Libya and Australia while diplomatic initiatives have been taken to have similar agreements with other countries. He said since October last, 60 persons were killed in incidents of sectarian violence. He added that the culprits involved in incidents of sectarianism had been arrested and their trials would start soon. Talking about the anti-smuggling drive launched by the government, he said 30 per cent smuggling has been controlled because of the steps taken by the government. In this regard, he said licences of various bonded warehouses have been cancelled and their number reduced from 42 to five. He said NADRA has been engaged in the preparation of passports and new electoral rolls besides maintaining record of death and birth certificates. Regarding the implementation of laws, the minister said the agencies concerned were not exercising their powers, which was the main factor why the desired results could not be achieved. The officials have been instructed to use their authority in appropriate manners so that the people could be ensured due relief, he said. Moinuddin Haider announced that the National Crisis Management Centre had been established and details about its structural set up have been provided to the provincial governments. He added that NADRA would help in setting up of these centres at the provincial levels and subsequently it would be linked with the districts. These centres would help in prompt reporting of any incident and in case of an incident of national level it would be analysed before reporting it to the chief executive. Referring to Prison Reforms, he said that the task force report would be implemented soon. He said that expenditure to be incurred on the implementation of these reforms would be borne by the respective provinces. Presently, he said, the number of prisoners all over the country were three times larger than their capacity. He said special steps would be taken for women prisoners and juveniles adding that at present there were separate jails for women in Punjab and Sindh. He said because of less number of women prisoners, there was no separate jail in Balochistan, while due to paucity of funds women jail could not be established in the NWFP. He said that the juveniles would be kept away from hardened criminals in the prisons and they would be provided every possible facility enabling them to be a useful citizen. For this purpose, he said Borstal Jail in Sindh has been renamed as Juveniles Industrial Institution. Likewise an institution has been set up in Sahiwal while another would be formed in Faisalabad. The minister said that 22,000 prisoners including children were freed recently who were involved in minor crimes. He added that it was a continuous process and children up to 6 years would be provided a chance to study in the SOS villages, provided they are allowed by their jailed mothers. He said that a fund would be established by the Women Commission for legal aid of the imprisoned women. Lauding the role of the NGOs, he said, some of these had been rendering useful services of reforming the prisoners in big cities. He hoped that this practice would also start in smaller places as well. The Minister said it has been decided to reintroduce the system of releasing the prisoners on parole under the probation law to give them a chance to improve. He regretted that unfortunately in the past this provision was misused and later discontinued. He said to improve jail conditions it has been planned to train the jail staff. He added that a France-based NGO "Prevention of Penal Reforms International" has sent experts to Central Jail Staff Training Institute, Lahore for improving the syllabus and to review the training programmes. Referring to Police Reforms, the minister said under the directive of the chief executive, the Police Reforms Act 1992 has been very carefully reviewed for necessary amendments.
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