With Pakistan’s Universal Periodic Review and review under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) quickly approaching, the Draft Punjab Prison Rules 2020 will bring Pakistan in compliance with the GSP+, UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Moreover, the Draft Punjab Prison Rules 2020 are the starting guidance point for all manners of rights afforded to prisoners. Therefore, it is essential that these are updated to provide jail authorities with a renewed modus operando when it comes to penal management. At the moment, the draft rules are with the Home Department of Punjab. 3. Set up a Prisons Tribunal The Draft Punjab Prison Rules 2020 contain a revised/new chapter on an internal complaint mechanism system – which did not exist in the Pakistan Prison Rules. These are the setup of Prison Tribunals. Although the government has taken some significant steps in improving both prison monitoring mechanisms and remedial avenues for prisoners in the past few years, but legitimate grievances and cases of mistreatment still go unresolved and unaddressed. Prisoners rarely bring civil claims to courts, and even if such claims are brought to ordinary courts, they hardly lead to any favorable results within a reasonable timeframe. Therefore, the only effective recourse available to prisoners to curb governmental excesses is provided under Article 199 of the Constitution (and to some extent Article 184(3)). Approaching the High Courts or the Supreme Court in writ jurisdiction only allows the petitioner to get a relief of a declaratory or directive nature, meaning that the courts can stop the government authority from continuing any action that infringes the rights of the petitioner but in no case can the courts order the respondent to pay monetary compensation to the petitioner in their constitutional jurisdiction. In addition, the process of filing cases in high court is elaborate and costly. Therefore, to bring uniformity in the functioning of prisons across Pakistan, and to uphold the rights of prisoners provided under the Constitution and the Prison Rules, it is proposed that specialized tribunals may be created under Article 212 of the Constitution, or through an Amendment in the Prisons Act, 1984, to serve as a onestop forum for prisoners for the redressal of their grievances. 17