Prisons are not salubrious places. The common criminal from a poor background is assigned to Class C confinement, with virtually no amenities. Abuse is common. Prisoners of higher social status are assigned to Class B prisons, where conditions are better, and they can procure better food and some amenities from their own pocket. Class A prisons are for "prominent" offenders. Conjugal visits are not the rule but are allowed in some cases.

Juveniles are handled separately in both the court system and in confinement. The criminal code prescribes special courts for offenders under age fifteen unless they are charged with a particularly serious offense and a high court orders that they be tried before a regular sessions court. There are juvenile wards in regular jails for offenders up to age twenty-one. In addition, a few reform institutions for boys between eleven and twenty years of age attempt to rehabilitate young offenders.

The Pakistan Prisons Act of 1894 and the Prison Rules of Pakistan, both relics from the colonial era, permit the use of whipping as a punishment in prisons. They also permit the use of fetters and chains as instruments of restraint and punishment under certain conditions. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, in his 1996 report on Pakistan, described the fetters used in Pakistan's prisons:

Bar fetters consist of iron rings locked around the ankles of prisoners; an iron bar is riveted to each of these iron shackles making an inverted "V". These two vertical bars are about 50 cm long and are linked at mid-thigh level by an iron ring which the prisoner must hold or which is connected to a rope or chain around the waist. The rods are of a standard length and, thus, men who are not of average height may suffer when the bars are too long or too short for them, thereby adding to the normal discomfort experienced in wearing bar fetters. The iron bars are about 1.2 cm in diameter and weigh, together with the ankle shackles, around 4 kg. Cross fetters are iron bars about 50 cm in length attached in addition to bar fetters and placed between the iron rings around the ankles keeping the prisoners' legs permanently apart at the bar's length.

If you know of a prisoner who needs contact please contact us here and send us the Inmates Name, Country of Origin, Age, date of birth, sentence, crime, date of release, time served, and any other information relivent to their case.

Prisoners in Pakistan Prisons
Prisoner Name	Age	Date Imprisoned	Charge
AYUB MASIH	32	October 1996	Charged with Blasphemy but released Aug 2002
DR MOHAMMED SHAIKH	-	August 2001	Muslim Physiology professor found guilty of blasphemy in lecture
SHARIF	-	January 2001	Ahmadi businessman in detention pending trial for blasphemy
DR YOUNASSHAIKH	-	October 2000	Pending appeal to High Court
AMJAD MASIH	31	February 1999	Arrested in Jhang near Faisalabad - February 4, 1999, for allegedly selling drugs. Was later accused of burning pages from the Koran. Local bishop says police officers failed to extort bribes from the two men fabricated the blasphemy charges. He was convicted and sentenced 25 years on March 21, 2001, by the Jhang Sessions Court. Their appeal has been pending before the Lahore High Court since April 2001. Amjad is married with four children. He is imprisoned in the Jhang District jail.
ANWAR KENNETH	44	September 25, 2001	Detained at Gawal Mandi police station in Lahore accused of blasphemy. On July 18, 2002, he was sentenced to death by a court in Lahore, where he is imprisoned in Kot Lakhpat jail.
ASHIQ 'KINGRI' MASIH	27	May 3, 2000	A young Christian man who converted to Islam to marry a Muslim girl. Now he is charged with blasphemy after he tried to return to his Christian faith. On June 29, 2002, the Faisalabad District and Sessions Court sentenced him to be hanged on charges of "slandering the Muslim prophet Mohammed."
ASIF MASIH	30	February 4, 1999	Arrested in Jhang near Faisalabad for allegedly selling drugs, accused of burning some pages of the Koran in his cell. Local bishop says police officers failed to extort bribes from him fabricated the blasphemy charges. He was convicted and sentenced to 25 years of prison on March 21, 2001, by the Jhang Sessions Court. His appeal has been pending before the Lahore High Court since April 2001. Asif is unmarried. He is imprisoned in the Jhang District jail.
ASLAM MASIH	70	November 5, 1998	Accused of preparing a charm containing verses from the Koran to hang around a dog's neck. He was convicted on May 7, 2002, by the Faisalabad Sessions Court, which sentenced him to serve a double life-sentence in prison. The verdict is under appeal before the Lahore High Court. He is imprisoned in the Faisalabad Central jail.
PERVAIZ MASIH	37	April 1, 2001	Arrested in a village near Sialkot, Pervaiz Masih was accused of slandering Mohammed to several teenage Muslim boys he was tutoring several months earlier. A well-known high school principal, he has been refused bail, and the police did not complete their prosecution brief on his case until the first week of July 2002. He is being tried before the Daska Additional and Sessions Court. Unmarried, he remains imprisoned in the Daska jail.
RANJHA MASIH	56	May 8, 1998	Accused of throwing stones that damaged a shop sign on which was written a verse from the Koran. He was charged seven weeks later with blaspheming against Mohammed. Trial hearings on his case did not begin for another two years before the Faisalabad Sessions Court, which by June 2002 had yet to hear the defense side of the case. He is married with six children and several grandchildren. He is imprisoned in the Faisalabad Central jail.
SHAHBAZ MASIH	26	June 4, 2001	Arrested near Faisalabad, Shahbaz Masih was accused of tearing up leaflets with verses from the Koran and desecrating the grave shrine of a local Muslim holy man. According to his family, the defendant is mentally unstable, having been admitted to a mental hospital twice in the past five years for treatment. Trial proceedings in his case began in June 2002. Unmarried, he is imprisoned without bail in the Faisalabad District jail.
RASHEED AND SALEEM MASIH	-	June 1999	Jailed without bail, Rasheed and Saleem Masih were accused of slandering the Muslim prophet Mohammed during an argument with an ice cream vendor. The incident occurred in the Pasrur region of northeastern Pakistan, when the Muslim vendor refused to serve the two Christians from the same bowls used by Muslims. They were given a life sentence for alleged blasphemy. Lahore-based Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), said the long-delayed blasphemy case against the Masih brothers is fraught with blatant legal irregularities. Although the initial complaint to the police only reported a fistfight, when a formal accusation was filed six days later, the accuser claimed that the two had committed blasphemy. According to CLAAS investigators, however, the Muslim plaintiffs carried a grudge against the two brothers after losing a civil land dispute against them. Although litigation documents were submitted which proved one of the prosecution witnesses had lied about this to the court, the evidence was ignored in the lower court judgment. In terms of legal procedure, the brothers had been booked under Section 295-C of Pakistan's blasphemy law, which carries a mandatory death sentence for anyone convicted of slandering the prophet Mohammed. But inexplicably, the lower court judge in Pasrur who found them guilty sentenced them to 25 years in prison Additional Sessions Court Judge Rana Mohammed Yousaf also tacked on another 10 years each for "insulting Islam" under Section 295-A. Since the law stipulates this accusation can only be tried in the country's Anti-Terrorist Courts, Judge Yousaf did not have any legal jurisdiction to rule on this statute After being jailed for the first 18 months in Sialkot, the two Christians were then transferred to Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail while awaiting the appeal of their conviction. The two brothers escaped injury when a riot broke out in the Sahiwal prison, leaving one prisoner dead and another 30 injured. Death row cells of 150 prisoners were broken open, the gallows set on fire and five jail employees taken hostage before police regained control with a heavy barrage of gunfire and tear gas. Their September transfer to the Sahiwal jail moved the Masih brothers 150 miles away from their wives and children in Sabu Mohaal village, near Pasrur. The distance has made it difficult and expensive for their families to visit them. It's a full day for them to go and come by bus, about six hours each way and they can only see them maximum for half an hour, not more. Rasheed Masih, now 36, has five children, and Saleem, 32, has three. During their first two years in prison, their elder brother Hamid Masih had provided for his two sisters-in-law and their eight children in their home village. But after his home was robbed and his wife raped by four assailants in June 2001, Hamid Masih moved his family out of the region to the relative anonymity of a large city. The Masih brothers' village is less than 20 miles from Chianwali, where three Christians were killed and another 13 injured in a Christmas night attack on a village church. ***Photos of Rasheed and Saleem Masih are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal. Compass Direct P.O. Box 27250 Santa Ana CA 92799-7250 USA TEL: 949-862-0314 FAX: 949-752-6536 E-mail: http://www.compassdirect.org