RAWALPINDI:
Pakistan’s prison population has climbed to 110,513, pushing jails to 160.6% of their approved capacity, with three out of every four inmates still awaiting trial, according to a new report by the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) and the Justice Project Pakistan (JPP).
The 2026 report found that 82,988 prisoners, or 75.09% of the country’s total prison population, are undertrial – a figure that by itself exceeds Pakistan’s total approved prison capacity of 68,832 by 14,156 inmates.
The findings point to a criminal justice system struggling to process people at the same pace at which they are entering prisons.
NCHR Chairperson Rabia Agha said Pakistan was confronting a broader justice system problem rather than simply an overcrowding crisis.
“Pakistan does not merely have a problem of overcrowding in prisons. We have a criminal justice system problem. People are entering prison at a rate that our justice system cannot dispose of at the same rate.”
She was speaking at the launch of the report by the NCHR and JPP.
Agha noted that more than 28,000 people were currently imprisoned under drug laws, raising questions about why such a large number of people were being incarcerated and what reforms were needed to change this pattern.
JPP Executive Director Sarah Bilal said the report was intended to give policymakers, criminal justice practitioners and donors the evidence needed to make better decisions and demonstrate that different approaches were possible.
“The purpose of this report is to provide policymakers, criminal justice system practitioners and donors with the evidence they need to make better decisions, and to show that different approaches are possible. The tools we are introducing alongside this report are about taking that evidence a step further: supporting the reform efforts of civil society and those working within the system.”
Jeroen Williams, head of Partnerships at the European Union Delegation to Pakistan, said significant efforts had been made over the past year to improve prison conditions in the country.
“Over the past year, significant efforts have been made in Pakistan to improve prison conditions.”
Earlier this year, a Prison Management Information System was launched in Balochistan, and similar initiatives have also been undertaken in five prison centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “If everything goes according to plan, an agreement will also be signed with UNODC to further improve prison management and conditions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Pakistan can rely on the European Union’s support in these efforts.”
The report analyses Pakistan’s prison crisis through the way the criminal justice system uses incarceration, examining who is arrested, access to bail, the pace at which cases are processed, which offences are criminalised and the availability of alternatives to imprisonment.
According to its key findings, Pakistan’s prisons are operating at 160.6% of their approved capacity, housing 110,513 inmates against a sanctioned capacity of 68,832 – 41,681 more people than the system was designed to accommodate.
Drug-related imprisonment was identified as another major driver of the pressure on prisons. More than 28,000 people are incarcerated under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act (CNSA), accounting for more than a quarter of the overall prison population and representing a 43.4% increase from 2023.
