OPEN

So is sponsoring a maximum security prison part of Pepsi’s corporate social responsibility programme in Pakistan? Or part of the irreverent yoof-targeted Pepsi Max campaign, perhaps…

Just watching More 4 news just now about the British death row prisoner Mirza Tahir Hussain in Pakistan who to have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment (found not guilty by two secular courts, but then sentenced to death by a Islamic Sharia court, by the way). They mentioned that the prison that the man was still being held in was sponsored by Pepsi. The Times mentions the same fact in its coverage:

Rawalpindi jail is a huge, high-walled complex that houses 5,200 inmates a few miles outside the city and has signs for vistors that are sponsored, bizarrely, by Pepsi. Each weekday morning hundreds of Pakistanis queue for hours to see their imprisoned relatives; The Times gained access to Mr Hussain with surprisingly little difficulty by posing as a family friend from Leeds.

I saw the Pepsi logo on the sign in the More 4 news report but can’t find pics anywhere. Anyone got a photo we can re-publish?

Any explanations for how on earth the sponsorship of a facility where people await execution got on the Pepsi sponsorship programme would also be gratefully received…