Take steps to free prisoners after jail terms: JS body
A parliamentary body yesterday expressed dissatisfaction over the bureaucratic tangle for which around 1,100 people await release from jail even after they completed serving their prison term.
The parliamentary standing committee on home affairs ministry, therefore, asked the authorities concerned to take immediate steps to ease the process and release them from jail.
Mirza Azam, a member of the committee, told the meeting that there are many people who are languishing in jail despite completion of their jail term due to bureaucratic tangle.
"While I was in jail, many people pointed out the matter to me. The jail authorities as well as home ministry did not give their final clearance to those people, as they often could not produce documents which they lost in maximum incidents," M Shafiqul Islam, a member of the committee, quoted Azam as saying at the meeting.
Shafiqul, also a ruling party lawmaker, told The Daily Star: "The process is very complex for which many people cannot come out of the jail in spite of their completion of jail term."
He further said that many people, who get the president's mercy, have to wait in jail for long due to the tangle.
It is not acceptable that a person has to stay in jail for many days just for bureaucratic knot," the lawmaker added.
The committee also asked the ministry to ease the process of waiving the punishment of life-term prisoners.
The meeting held at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban also asked Narcotics Control Department to conduct a special drive against trading of illegal drugs in the city and elsewhere across the country.
The committee formed a three-member subcommittee, headed by lawmaker Nurul Islam Sujan, to submit a report to it on a bill titled 'Acid Control (amendment) Act 2002'. The two other members of the subcommittee include AL lawmaker Sanjida Khanam and Jatiya Party lawmaker Mujib-ul-Hoque.
The bill was sent to the committee for scrutiny.
Presided over by Maj (retd) Abdus Salam, chairman of the parliamentary body, the meeting was attended by Home Minister Sahara Khatun, home secretary and inspector general of police, among others.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments