PESHAWAR: Prisoners across jails in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have filed a petition in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against a recent ban on access to education for certain inmates.
According to details, Advocate Fawad Afzal Safi had filed The petition in the PHC, the Inspector General of Prisons and other relevant officials as respondents. The petition challenges a notification issued on August 29, which prohibits prisoners convicted in narcotics-related cases from pursuing education.
According to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) outlined in the notification, inmates serving sentences for drug-related offences are no longer eligible to study or pursue educational programs as a pathway to remission.
The petition argues that education is a fundamental constitutional right of all prisoners and cannot be denied on the basis of the nature of their conviction. It states that the IG Prisons does not have the discretionary power to bar any inmate from accessing education.
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The petitioners have urged the court to declare the August 29 notification unconstitutional and unlawful, asserting that depriving prisoners of educational opportunities is a violation of their basic human and legal rights.
The case is expected to be taken up by the High Court in the coming days.
