Degree

BS (Social Sciences & Liberal Arts)

Faculty / School

School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS)

Department

Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts

Date of Award

Spring 2026

Date of Submission

2026-07-25

Advisor

Shahzeb Ahmed Hashim, Lecturer, Department of Social Sciences

Committee

Beena Sarwar

Project Type

SSLA Culminating Experience

Access Type

Restricted Access

Keywords

Under-trial prisoners, rehabilitation, Karachi Central Jail, Sindh Prisons and Corrections Services Act 2019

Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to identify whether Sindh’s criminal justice framework prioritizes rehabilitation over punishment for under-trial prisoners, and what the treatment of this population reveals about the system as a whole.

Through doctrinal legal analysis, secondary empirical documentation, and semi-structured interviews, the study finds that Rule 762(3) of the Sindh Prisons and Corrections Services Act of 2019 disadvantages under-trial prisoners by only giving them discretionary access to rehabilitation, a finding that was confirmed by all interviews conducted for this study. Drawing on Foucault, Garland, Kolsky, and Fanon, this thesis argues that this finding is not accidental. Rather, it is a reflection of carceral logic that was inherited from colonial legal design, worsened by severe overcrowding, particularly at the Karachi Central Jail.

The study concludes that rehabilitation for under-trial prisoners functions less as a genuine reform and more of a managerial tool for behavioral control, hidden behind reformist vocabulary. The paper offers specific recommendations, arguing that meaningful change requires converting Sindh’s existing rules on rehabilitation into binding legal entitlement for under-trial prisoners after a certain time has elapsed.

Pages

79

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