LAHORE, April 25 (PTI): Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has announced a two-month remission in prisoners’ sentences ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, a relief not applicable to convicts of terrorism cases, including Mumbai terror attack mastermind and banned Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed.
During his visit to the high-security Kot Lakhpat Jail here on Sunday, Prime Minister Shehbaz announced the remission.
“The two-month remission will not apply to the prisoners convicted in terrorism cases,” senior advocate Waheed Shahzad told PTI on Monday.
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On April 8, an anti-terrorism court here sentenced JuD chief Saeed to 32 years in jail in two more terror financing cases.
Earlier in five such cases, the 71-year-old radical cleric had already been convicted for 36 years imprisonment in five terror financing cases.
The total sentence of 68 years imprisonment will run concurrently. Saeed may have to spend not many years in jail because his sentence will run concurrently.
However, a lawyer told PTI that Saeed may not have to spend many years in jail as his sentence will run concurrently. Saeed is serving his term in Kot Lakhpat jail.
Saeed, a UN-designated terrorist on whom the US has placed a USD 10 million bounty, was arrested in July 2019 in the terror financing cases.
Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
Shehbaz also visited the barrack at Lot Lakhpat where he remained imprisoned in the money laundering and assets beyond means cases for about eight months.
Sharing his personal experience at the jail, the 70-year-old premier said that jails lack basic facilities for prisoners, including washrooms, laundry and health facilities.
The prime minister also ordered the setting up of a committee headed by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah to formulate a comprehensive strategy for the provision of basic facilities to the inmates, besides making improvements in the overall system governing the prisons in the country.
“The skill development resources should be used in a manner that prisoners could spend their time in the jail in a positive way and play an effective role in society after completion of their terms,” Shehbaz said.
Shehbaz Sharif’s elder brother and former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, 72, has also spent time in the Kot Lakhpat Jail in 2019 before he was allowed to go to the UK for medical treatment on November 20 of that year. He was sentenced to a seven-year jail term in the Al-Azizia Mills corruption case.
