Punjab Home Secretary Ahmed Javed Qazi has directed authorities to accelerate work on the province’s Rs5 billion Safe Jail Project, under which more than 12,000 modern surveillance cameras equipped with artificial intelligence based facial and vehicle recognition capabilities will be installed across prisons in the province. Chairing a meeting to review progress on the initiative, the home secretary instructed all stakeholders to work in close coordination and ensure timely completion, while directing that progress be reviewed on a daily basis going forward.
The meeting was informed that eighty percent of the procurement and inspection of modern equipment required for the project has already been completed, with work continuing to modernise security arrangements across the province’s correctional facilities. Under the first phase of the project, ten central jails, District Jail Lahore and ten command and control centres are being brought online, with the home secretary setting a target for the completion of Lahore Central Jail and its associated command and control centre within the current month. The remaining prisons across the province have been given a broader completion deadline of March 2027 for the full rollout of the security infrastructure.
Beyond the surveillance cameras, the project includes the deployment of 2,266 public address systems and panic buttons, 369 body cameras, 656 walkie talkie sets, 41 full body scanners and 41 under vehicle surveillance systems across various jails in Punjab. Officials said the cameras will feature facial and vehicle recognition, night vision, anti shake technology and artificial intelligence based monitoring capabilities, alongside 133 specialised software systems and 51 video conferencing systems intended to support broader prison management and communication needs. A visitor management system is also being introduced as part of the rollout, designed to monitor meetings between inmates and visitors, while the broader surveillance network will track the attendance and movement of both prisoners and prison staff throughout each facility.
According to officials, violations of prison regulations will trigger automatic alerts under the new system, with camera coverage extending across entry and exit points, offices, barracks, security walls and other sensitive areas within each facility. For effective monitoring, control rooms are being established at all prisons, regional office locations, the Inspector General of Prisons office and the Home Department, allowing oversight to be coordinated across multiple administrative levels rather than remaining confined to individual facilities. The home secretary described prison reforms as among the top priorities of the Punjab government, emphasising that all stakeholders involved in the project need to work as a coordinated team to meet the timelines that have been set.
The National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation has been engaged to implement the Safe Jail Project, while the Punjab Safe Cities Authority is providing consultancy services for the initiative. The project also includes a five year operations and maintenance arrangement following its completion, reflecting an effort to ensure the surveillance and security infrastructure remains functional and properly maintained well beyond the initial installation phase. The scale of the rollout, spanning thousands of individual devices and dozens of facilities across the province, positions the Safe Jail Project as one of the more substantial applications of artificial intelligence based surveillance technology undertaken by a provincial government department in Pakistan to date.
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