Punjab issues rules and regulations for prisoners’ pardon

LAHORE: The Punjab Home Department has issued the rules and regulations, and criteria for pardoning prisoners.

Five conditions of hard work, good character, education, blood donation and special amnesty are introduced in the new rules and regulations.

The criteria stipulate 15 days’ remission for prisoners of good character on completion of one-year imprisonment with hard labour. After completion of three years, 15 days plus additional 30 days will be waived, Punjab Home Department notified.

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Prisoners with Matric, Inter, BA or MA degrees will get six to 10 months of remission in sentence, the Home Department said, adding that those who complete Quran memorisation and translation while in prison will get pardon of six months to two years’ sentence.

Prisoners doing electrician and technical courses will get one month’s remission in sentence.

The jail superintendents will forward the pardon cases in seven days and DIG jails in three days after examination results. The IG jails will be bound to issue the notification of remission of sentence in the second decade of every month.

The IG will send a certificate to the Home Department every month to ensure that no case of remission stays pending.

The superintendent jail can grant 30 days’ pardon and IG jail can grant 60 days’ pardon, Home Department said, adding that the Interior Secretary can grant special amnesty for 90 days and federal government for 60 days. Presidential pardons supersede all laws under Article 45 of the Constitution.

Moreover, according to jail rules, a convicted prisoner is entitled to a 30-day amnesty for donating blood. A prisoner with a sentence of more than five years can donate blood maximum four times.

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Prisoners commuting from death sentence to life imprisonment will be given amnesty according to the scale. Amnesty of punishment will be given four times in a year, every three months, and its record entry will be done on the same day of the issuance, Home Department said.

Convicted persons involved in terrorism, saboteur and anti-state activities are not eligible for these pardons.