Rs 250,000 for a 3-Minute Call? Explosive Claims Emerge from Karachi's Central Jail

A new report has made an extraordinary allegation: inmates at Karachi's Central Jail were charged up to Rs 250,000 for a single three-minute WhatsApp call made over the jail's Wi-Fi. The claims, which have not yet been independently verified, have raised serious questions about oversight and accountability inside one of Pakistan's largest prisons.

What is being alleged

According to the report, prisoners paid staggering sums — as much as a quarter of a million rupees — for just three minutes of call time on WhatsApp, using the facility's own Wi-Fi network. If true, it would mean a communication lifeline was being sold to inmates and their families at an almost unbelievable markup, with the money flowing to whoever controlled access.

It must be stressed: these are allegations at this stage, not established facts. No official inquiry has yet confirmed the claims, and the prison administration has not publicly responded to them.

A long-running problem

The claims land against a familiar backdrop. Contraband mobile phones inside Pakistani prisons are a long-standing issue — phones are regularly seized in raids, and there have been repeated cases of inmates running criminal operations, including kidnapping-for-ransom schemes, from behind bars using smuggled devices.

What makes this allegation different is the suggestion of an organised, priced system operating over the jail's own network — not smuggled phones used in secret, but Wi-Fi access allegedly monetised at scale. That, if proven, would point to systemic failure rather than isolated smuggling.

Why it matters

For the families of inmates — many of them poor — the allegation is chilling. A phone call with a jailed relative is often the only contact a family has for months. If access to that contact was being auctioned at Rs 250,000 for three minutes, it represents exploitation of some of the most vulnerable people in the system.

More broadly, the claims strike at the credibility of the prison system itself. Jails are meant to be among the most controlled environments in the country. An allegation that a black market in connectivity thrived inside Karachi's Central Jail raises an unavoidable question: who was in charge, and who was watching?

What happens next

The seriousness of the claims demands a transparent response. Prison authorities and the provincial government will face pressure to order an independent inquiry, examine network logs, and hold anyone involved accountable. Until then, the allegation remains exactly that — an allegation. But it is one that cannot simply be ignored.

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