niaz gul shahab
PESHAWAR, Dec 18. Caretaker federal minister for human rights, Ansaar Barni has said there is no witness that chief of Alqaeda, Osama bin Laden is in bajour or any other part of tribal areas, as he has died.
Addressing a news conference here at Press Club on Tuesday, minister said, “ I’m sure that Alqaeda chief, Osama bin Laden has died and there is no witness of his alive, so, it should be refrained from all kind of wrong statements that he (osama) maybe in Bajour.”
About human rights, Ansaar Barni appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of the plight of the prisoners who have been sentenced to death and are living in the death cells in pathetic conditions.
The human rights activist said that the appeals by the peoples, who were in death cell, were in pending for several years and the 15 people had been lodged in space of three in the different parts of the country.
“Many of them of have become mental patients due to living in such conditions and some of them had to be amputated due to living in insufficient space, as they had less space to rest and sit,” he said.
He said that the CJP should take notice of their records and their death sentence should be converted to the life sentence. ”The punishment should be given within the limits and if who is awarding the sentence also becomes a culprit,” he said. Ansaar said that the death sentences of the prolonged detainees should be converted to life imprisonment and proper medical treatment should be provided to the prisoners.
“At present, there are above 500 death sentence in Peshawar Central jail while the total capacity of the jail is about 800 and around 2300 prisoners have been caged in it,” he said.
He said a child of eight years age was imprisoned in Lahore jail in a kidnapping for ransom while anther of 10 years was detained in Adiala Jail and his sentence was ended on October 1 but he was unable to pay the fine and I talked to the caretaker prime minister and he paid the fine and then, the child was released from the detention.
“Around seven prisoners were from Balochistan had also completed their sentences but were unable to pay the fine and the government paid their fine, which amounted for Rs 2 million and they were released,” he said.
Federal minister said that the human trafficking of children for the camel race in the Gulf States had been banned and the same had been now stopped from the other countries like Bangladesh, Sudan and Mauritania.
“The trafficking of the girls from the country for sexual abuse is also a big problem,” he said.
He said informed that he had contacted the caretaker prime minister with the details of the prisoners across the country, the prime minister had ensured that government would take notice of those prisoners and pay the fines of those detainees, who were unable to pay the fine.
He said that he had announced Rs 10000 for the army recruits killed in the Kohat suicide attack on Monday.
He said that the 550 people have been released from the Balochistan and around 5700 people have been released from the whole country since he had been appointed as the minister.
“I am totally against the FCR in the tribal areas and I have written to the President in this regard,” he said.
He said that the publicity that media gave to a terror activity was their biggest triumph and said that the journalists, lawyers and NGOs should not be a party in something.
He asked the government to provide the prisoners with their human rights and new jails should be constructed to remove the load from the existing ones.
He said for the first time a full-fledged ministry of the human rights had been formed in the country and before that it was a wing of law, justice, parliamentary affairs and human rights ministry.
ENDS
