LAHORE: Two internship programmes concluded in Lahore this week — one at the Home Department, one at the Central Police Office — but the more consequential disclosures came in the briefings around them.
Special Secretary Home Zainab Khan told the closing session of the Punjab Probation and Parole Service summer internship that, under the Naya Aaghaz Programme, deserving prisoners are provided interest-free loans of up to Rs 200,000 on release, enabling them to start small businesses using skills acquired in custody.
Inspector General of Prisons Mian Salik Jalal said prisoners were being given technical training across 23 industries under the Skilled Prisoners Programme, and that more than 65,000 people had used the Mulaqat App introduced to arrange prison visits. Director General Probation and Parole Shahid Iqbal said the department was providing rehabilitative training to 40,000 probationers.
Thirty students from seven universities — including GCU Lahore, the University of the Punjab, LCWU, LUMS, BNU, Kinnaird and FC College — took part in the probation internship, drawn from psychology, sociology, social work, criminology, law and gender studies. They undertook study visits to the Punjab Assembly, courts, the Punjab Forensic Science Authority, Rescue 1122, Punjab Safe Cities Authority and the Civil Services Academy.
Separately, IG Punjab Abdul Kareem distributed certificates to the 14th batch of the Punjab Police Internship Programme, in which 38 students from the University of the Punjab and 27 from Government College University spent five weeks attached to the CTD, Special Branch, Safe Cities Authority, Investigation and IT branches.
Probation and parole are the principal levers available for reducing prison overcrowding, a long-standing problem in Punjab’s jails. Neither department disclosed recidivism rates among Naya Aaghaz borrowers or loan recovery figures — the two measures that would show whether the scheme is working as rehabilitation or functioning as an unrecovered grant.
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