LAHORE:
With 102,026 inmates crammed into 128 prisons across Pakistan, including Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), the country’s prison system is operating at an alarming 152.2% of its capacity official, according to the Prison Data Report 2024.
The groundbreaking report by the Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) highlights the dire conditions in which some prisons exceed 300% capacity.
The report finds that overcrowding remains a major concern despite a modest 1.66% increase in the prison population compared to 2023.
Undertrial prisoners constitute 73.41% of the total population, highlighting systemic inefficiencies such as prolonged court delays and ineffective bail and parole systems.
Punjab, which houses 60.7% of the prison population, is operating its prisons at 173.6% capacity. Sindh follows with 161.42%, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with 102.50% and Balochistan with 115.60%. Karachi Central Prison illustrates the crisis, housing 8,518 inmates against a capacity of 2,400, a staggering rate of 354.92%.
In Punjab, 61,813 prisoners are held in facilities designed for 37,217 inmates. Despite the construction of four new prisons with a capacity of 2,268 inmates, the province’s efforts to reduce overcrowding remain insufficient.
The number of prisoners under trial has increased by 8% over the past eight years, from 66% in 2017 to 73.41% in 2024. This figure is significantly higher than the global average of 27%.
The report also highlights the inconsistency in the declaration of those in pre-trial detention. Sindh recorded a 29.5% decrease in the number of people in remand in 2024, while Punjab and KP did not report any data.
Drug-related offenses continue to dominate the prison population, with 23,367 inmates incarcerated under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act (CNSA), an increase of 18.98% from 2023. Punjab is in led with 13,331 cases, representing 29.94% of its total prison population.
Ironically, while incarceration rates for drug offenses have increased, conviction rates have fallen. Punjab saw a decline from 16% in 2022 to just 2% in 2023.
Death row inmates also saw a slight increase, increasing by 1.17% to 3,646 in 2024, despite no executions since December 2019.
The report criticizes outdated prison rules, particularly in Punjab, where the 1978 Prison Rules do not conform to international standards. The proposed reforms, including the draft Punjab Prison Rules 2020 and 2022, have still not been adopted.
Meanwhile, Sindh and KP have made progress, with the Sindh Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2019 and the KP Prisons Amendment Act, 2020 aligning more closely with international standards.
