May 5, 2018: Founder CODE PAKISTAN Mr. Dilawar Khan presented his paper titled “Countering Violent Extremism and Recidivism in the Prisons of Pakistan by Addressing Overcrowding in Prisons” at the 8th Judicial Conference in Islamabad organized by Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP). In his presentation, Mr. Khan emphasized the need to address prisons overcrowding for effectively implementing a CVE strategy in Pakistan. He shared that prisons were playing a significant role in the spread of radicalization, violent extremism, and terrorism. He further argued that recidivism and recruitment for violent extremist organizations permeated the prison premises largely due to lack of segregation between hardened criminals and first-time offenders. Therefore, he maintained that overcrowding of prisons had a direct nexus with returning criminals, their recidivism, and growing extremism tendencies, posing a serious challenge to CVE efforts in Pakistan.
In his presentation at the 8th judicial conference, Mr. Khan shared that under the Pakistan Prison Rules 1978, the right to accommodation, including segregation of prisoners, was acknowledged. He maintained that this protection was quite extensive and, if implemented, would reduce several challenges being faced by the criminal justice system. He added, however, that the implementation of the abovementioned law was not always guaranteed due to several constraints, one of the main ones being overcrowding of prisons leading to difficulties in keeping prisoners segregated as per the available space in various barracks.
In light of the observations made by Mr. Khan, he recommended that not only should measures be taken for overcoming overcrowding and ensuring segregation of prisons as per current domestic law, but rehabilitation programs, within and outside the prison premises, also need to be strengthened to promote the rehabilitation of prison inmates. He noted that there were two main challenges inside prisons, which had promoted violent extremism within their boundaries: overcrowding and drug abuse. He argued that by ensuring prisoner segregation and reducing reliance on drug abuse during incarceration, the use of prisons as breeding grounds for extremism and terrorism could be curbed. For this purpose, he suggested strengthening rehabilitative measures inside prisons in Pakistan to effectively implement CVE measures in all segments of society.
The 8th judicial conference was attended by people from all walks of the legal profession, including those working in the government sector, the judiciary, prosecution, lawyers, and academia. The Chief Justice of Pakistan also graced the event with his presence.