Punjab's prisons currently house 72,940 inmates, including approximately 53,000 undertrials.
Of the total population, 15,390 individuals face drug-peddling charges, a figure that rose from 13,000 in 2024 to 14,300 in 2025. Drug-related cases account for over 23 per cent of the undertrial population. More than 200 of the inmates are women.
Adiala Jail contains the highest number of undertrials at 6,390, followed by Lahore's Camp Jail with 6,033 and Central Jail Gujranwala with 4,870. Other facilities with significant overcrowding include Central Jail Faisalabad with 2,770, District Jail Sialkot with 2,480, District Jail Sheikhupura with 2,285, District Jail Faisalabad with 2,070, and District Jail Kasur with 1,970.
Around 17,000 people are held for minor offences, while more than 2,200 await release in cases involving drug use. Separately, 2,050 prisoners, including 140 women, have been convicted of drug peddling. Inspector General of Prisons Punjab Mian Salik Jalal said judicial officers visited prisons to release undertrial prisoners involved in minor offences on personal surety.
Jalal stated that under the rules, judicial officers of at least the rank of Additional Sessions Judge were required to visit prisons twice a month. He added that responsibility for any subsequent arrest outside prison did not rest with the prison authorities. Punjab Home Department spokesperson Tauseef Gondal said the department was monitoring prison overcrowding and regularly updating inmate records.
Former Punjab prisons chief Salahuddin Ahmed Khan Niazi said police and CCD personnel often wait outside jails with lists of inmates granted bail but wanted in other cases.
"The fear of the CCD keeps them from leaving prison," Niazi said. Abdullah Malik, a legal expert and head of a human rights organisation, said allegations of police encounters involving the CCD had prompted widespread concern.
"Therefore, some detainees view prison as a safer alternative to returning to the outside world," noted Malik. A CCD spokesperson said police arrested suspects only in registered cases and could rearrest them if they faced other pending cases despite securing bail.
