Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Khan Gandapur has decided in principle to change the diet menu of prisons through out the province in order to ensure provision of good quality food to prisoners, and directed the quarters concerned for necessary steps to increase the annual budget of prisons in the head of food from Rs1.5 billion to Rs 2.00 billion.
He had directed that all the deputy commissioners would be responsible to carry out regular quality inspection of meal items being served to inmates in the prisons of their respective districts. The chief minister further decided provision of free legal aid for those prisoners, who cannot afford to hire lawyer to pursue their cases, and directed the concerned authorities to get the services of competent lawyers for this purpose, and said that expenditures incurred on this, would be borne by the provincial government.
He was presiding over a meeting of prisons department, held here at chief Minister’s house the other day. Additional Chief Secretary Home Muhammad Abid Majeed, Principal Secretary to CM Amjad Ali Khan, IG prisons Muhammad Usman Mehsud and others attended the meeting. The chief minister has emphasized the need to accelerate work on priority development projects being executed in the various prisons of the province, and directed the finance department to provide funds required for this purpose.
