Role of Religious Interventions in the Reintegration of Prisoners: A Case Study of Selected Jails of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Prisoners’ reintegration is the core concept of almost all penal systems in the world. One of the potent tools to ensure prisoners’ reintegration is effective network of religious services within prisons. This paper aims at exploring the role of religious interventions in the reintegration of prisoners with specific focus on Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) jails.  Six high profile jails---Central Jail Peshawar, Haripur, Bannu, and District Jail Timergara, Mardan and Kohat of KP were purposively selected. Mixed methodology, more specifically concurrent triangulation technique, was used to collect and analyze the data. Of all 261 respondents, 250 comprised of jail inmates (under-trial and convicted adults and juveniles male prisoners) were randomly selected within the six jails of the province and interviewed through semi-structured questionnaire. The remaining 11 respondents, purposively selected and interviewed through interview-guide included jail officials of all the selected prisons (6 in numbers) and ex-prisoners (5 in numbers). It was found that a clear majority of the respondents considered religious interventions instrumental in accomplishing the goal of prisoners’ reintegration i.e, making them law abiding, productive, contributing and pro-social citizens. Many of the apparently incorrigible and potentially dangerous prisoners altered the course of their lives once they went through religious programs inside prisons. It was also discovered that in KP prisons, there was no effective network of chaplaincy services, and often these services were provided by self-motivated religious prisoners and rarely by the prison management with the collaboration of NGOs.  Yet, the existing religious interventions had an extraordinary impact in terms of reforming the inmates. Hence, it is recommended that any prisons’ reform strategy must incorporate a well-designed framework of religious programs to transform criminals into an asset for society.

Dynamics of Inflation, Exchange Rates and Inflation Targeting in Pakistan

This study examines inflation and the choice of monetary policy regime in Pakistan. Using the annual series of 1970-71 to 2008-09 and the monthly series of 1990:M1- 2007:M9, the study employs unstructured VAR, Time Varying Parameter and State Space models for understanding the dynamics of inflation and monetary policy in Pakistan. It is observed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the official measure of inflation in Pakistan, has not only an upward bias but also has methodological deficiencies. Further, the study investigates the direction of causation between the CPI, money supply, exchange rate, interest rate, oil prices, and fiscal deficit to conclude that there exists bidirectional causality between the CPI and call money rate. Analysis of determinants of inflation shows that inflation in Pakisan is monetary in nature: inflation, interest rate and money supply move together. The study then goes on to find that inflation generates negative shocks and it can, therefore, hamper growth. It infers that there is no evidence of the accelerationist hypothesis in Pakistan. Furthermore, it is shown that forward-looking expectations of households and businesses play an important role in causing inflation in the country. In this context, the study provides information on the issue of volatility and uncertainty arising from unstable monetary rules. It confirms that the State Bank of Pakistan does not have an aggressive policy for controlling inflation and minimzing output gap. The study thus seeks to contribute to the debate on discretionary versus rule-based monetary policy to explore what suits best the case of Pakistan. It also comments on the choice of instruments for controlling inflation. Finally, the study concludes that the fact that Pakistan has faced a volatile but moderate inflation rate in the period under review makes her a potential candidate for inflation targeting.