Sindh govt releases Rs.340mn to pay fines of 37 poor prisoners

KARACHI: In an attempt to release the 37 vulnerable prisoners ahead of Eid who have been languishing in different provincials jails since long despite completing their sentences, the Sindh government here on Monday released Rs.340mn to pay their fines, ARY News reported.

Prisons IG Muzaffar Alam Siddiqui confirmed that the provincial government had released Rs.339.5 mn to pay the fines of 37 poor prisoners who were languishing in six different jails despite completing their sentences as they could not pay their penalties. He said that the amount would be submitted in different courts on the behalf to the prisoners to get their release orders.

Siddiqui said that the prisoners were convicted in different cases and added that some of them had completed their sentence five years ago but they were not released due to nonpayment of the their Diyat, Daman or Arsh amount.

The IG further said that the amount would be transferred to the families of the victims as compensation money. He said that after releasing the amount, the prisoners would celebrate Eid with their families and added that their release from jail was not possible due to fines payable against them.

Earlier in the day, Malir Jail administration has released over 40 prisoners who had completed their sentences but didn’t have money to pay the fine to win their freedom.

I.G. Jail Muzaffar Alam Siddiqui has said that 40 prisoners have been released from the jail after a philanthropist lady of Karachi paid the amount of fines imposed on these jail inmates in this holy month of Ramazan.