Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Ronald Lamola says the offer to assist student activists who were arrested as part of the #Fees Must Fall protests, to apply for a Presidential pardon, still stands.He said while no applications for a Presidential pardon or the expungement of
criminal records have been received from the affected students, student leaders who were at the forefront of holding talks with the department are urged to come forward with a list of student protesters in order to help them with the applications process.
Sources added that the new development is coming after similar programmes in more advanced countries, where
criminal records are verified through the police, ahead of important employment opportunities.
Mr Khan said modern policing was not possible without the effective use of information technology and Punjab police should have to improve its IT projects especially
criminal record management system to rectify false cases against citizens on a priority basis.
'Currently, our
Criminal Record Management System has particulars of more than 1.3 million suspects.
Currently, the
Criminal Record Management System holds the data of more than 1.3 million offenders.
He said that now police are offering the data and
criminal record verification service to the industries to ensure their security, and any employer could easily verify the NIC and background record of his employee, after acquiring this service from police.
"To rely upon the absence of a
criminal record as evidence of good character is hardly a reliable test and might provide a false sense of security," added Mr Lewis.
In the UK 11 million people have a
criminal record, according to BITC, and they also say 75% of employers admit to discriminating against applicants with a criminal conviction.
He already has a long
criminal record including drug offenses, assault, DUI, public endangerment, among other crimes.
A
criminal record brings a host of collateral consequences.
According to a study published in the IZA Journal of Labour Policy, researchers at Northwestern University investigated the possible relationship between having a
criminal record and job performance by evaluating data from employees in sales or customer service jobs in call centres in the US.