Pakistan Furniture Council (PFC) has offered to train prisoners in Punjab jails as skilled woodworkers to meet the requirements of the furniture industry in the country, WealthPK reports. Talking to Inspector General of Prisons Mubashar Ahmad Khan, Chief Executive Officer of PFC Mian Kashif Ashfaq offered a totally free training package and discussed its modalities and scope of enhancing cooperation between the public and private sectors, according to a press release.

He said that Pakistan was facing an acute shortage of highly skilled woodworkers so it was decided to meet the scarcity of artisans by training the convicts on modern scientific lines to fulfil market-driven demands. He said that on successful completion of proper training, the convicts would be hired in furniture manufacturing factories with good pay packages after their release from jails.

Dr Waqar Chaudhry, adviser to PFC, said that the council might also consider offering a good monthly stipend for all convict trainees to attract them. Mian Kashif Ashfaq said that initially a six-month short course would be launched in the central jails of Lahore, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi. He said that special lectures would also be delivered on the importance of growing more useful trees to offset the hovering threat of climate change and meet the wood needs of the country.

IG Mubashar Ahmad Khan appreciated the goodwill gesture of PFC and constituted a high-level committee headed by the assistant inspector general of prisons to further discuss the feasibility of the offer and work out a joint strategy to give it a final shape.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk