October 2025
By Kaleem Ullah
LAHORE
The latest prison data from October 2025 is dismal. A shocking total of 70,072 prisoners are confined in jails across Punjab – this includes 68,012 men, 1,330 women, and 888 juvenile prisoners. Among them, 49,423 men, 1,021 women, and 787 juveniles are under trial, while 16,109 men, 280 women, and 108 juveniles are convicted.
Within these numbers are countless prisoners who remain behind bars simply because they have no one to pursue their cases or visit them.
Through regular prison visits over the past 30 years, Hifsa Aziz, a Supreme Court lawyer with the Asma Jahangir Legal Aid Cell, tells Voicepk about these visits and the role of her organization in providing legal aid to inmates.
“Whenever we visit jails, we find that there are many prisoners, in particular women and juveniles, who lack access to attorneys — either because of financial constraints or because their families have completely abandoned them,” she reveals. “Their cases are often filed through jail authorities. So during our visits, we visit prisons, we hear them out, examine their cases thoroughly, and then we file appeals on their behalf in the High Court and the Supreme Court.”
There are in fact thousands of prisoners in Pakistan who are behind bars simply because poverty has deprived them of access to legal assistance or because they have no one to pursue their cases. Lawyers from the Asma Jahangir Legal Aid Cell (AGHS) regularly visit prisons to identify destitute and abandoned inmates and provide them with legal support.
AGHS’s Advocate Noreen Nazir, says that for 30 years, their organization has focused on providing free legal aid to women, minors, and people from religious minorities.
“First we send a letter of approval to the Inspector General of Prisons for a month or two, after which an officer is assigned to accompany us during our visits and facilitate our meetings with prisoners,” she described the process.
“The organization helps rescue prisoners who have been abandoned by their families and left to languish in different jails,” she says. “Initially, families meet and support their loved ones, but over time, they often stop pursuing their cases in court and cease visiting them in prison. This abandonment adds to the frustration and suffering of prisoners, whose lives are already fragile and filled with hardship,” she said.
According to Noreen, apart from the neglect of family members, inmates’ difficulties are exacerbated by a lack of proper clothing and shoes—one of the most common complaints received during visits. Since jail authorities are not responsible for providing these essentials, social organizations attempt to fill the gap, though they struggle to meet demands due to severe overcrowding in prisons. Many prisoners also contract diseases during their confinement.
A 2023 Human Rights Watch report highlighted the healthcare crisis in Pakistan’s prisons, documenting widespread deficiencies in medical care across facilities holding over 88,000 inmates. The report noted that Pakistan has one of the world’s most overcrowded prison systems, with cells designed for three people often holding up to fifteen. Severe overcrowding has compounded existing healthcare deficiencies, leaving inmates vulnerable to communicable diseases and depriving them of access to basic and emergency medical treatment.
Commenting on class-based discrimination among inmates, HRW observes that ‘rich and influential prisoners sometimes serve their sentences outside prison in private hospitals, while poorer prisoners must pay bribes just to receive pain relief medication. Colonial-era laws enable the government and other powerful individuals to interfere in police and prison operations, often directing officials to grant favours to allies and harass opponents.
Advocate Muntaha Tariq, is also part of the AGHS jail inspection team. The young lawyer understands that sharing life skills with prisoners, especially women, will help them later in their lives. She talks about her experience from a recent visit to the women’s prison in Multan.
“It is the first facility of its kind in Punjab specifically designed for women, offering them opportunities to learn skills that they can use later in life,” she says. “The prison has an entire section dedicated to handicrafts where women work and have their products in the market. This not only provides them with income for their daily lives but also offers a form of escape from daily hardship and mental stress.”
Muntaha further added that female inmates were also being trained in beautician courses to help them acquire new skills. “In this visit we have also observed that many women approached us for legal consultations. Some already had attorneys but were dissatisfied with them, so they reached out to us, providing their family contacts so we could inform their families about the issues they were facing regarding their appeals. In this way, AGHS has become a bridge between the prisoners and their families, helping to reconnect them.”