Qamar Mansoor permitted to receive treatment at own expense

Karachi
An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Monday allowed detained Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader, Qamar Mansoor, to avail medical treatment while in detention on his own expenses.
The counsel for Mansoor had earlier moved an application with the court requesting it to permit his client to avail medical facilities from a private hospital which had his prior medical records.
The counsel maintained that Mansoor had been suffering from backbone dislocation for the past 17 years whereas his condition had worsened during his detention period due to severe torture inflicted upon by the Rangers personnel. His medical records were also presented in the court.
Asking the law enforcement personnel to ensure the detainee had a medical check-up directing them to submit a medical report in the previous hearing, the Rangers personnel failed to provide any reports to the court to that effect.
The law officer of Sindh Rangers informed the court that the institution was not bound to provide the detainee with the required medical treatment, adding that the arrested leader could avail it at the jail’s hospital.
Mansoor, a senior member of the MQM’s Rabita Committee was arrested along with the in-charge of the committee Kaif-ul-Warah on July 17 in the second raid conducted by Rangers personnel at the party’s headquarter Nine-Zero.
The latter was released the following day on personal surety. The personnel had initially acquitted a three-day transit remand of the detainee through a special court on charges of “facilitating hate speeches against peace in Karachi”, according to Director General Sindh Rangers Major General Bilal Akbar.
However, a 90-day preventive detention was acquired over charges of alleged target killings, extortion and several other offences on July 22.
MQM demands treatment for Mansoor
Having twice appealed to shift the detained MQM leader to a medical facility since his arrest, the party’s legislators as well as the Rabita Committee on Monday demanded of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah to shift him to a hospital, for the third time.
According to a joint statement issued by the MNAs, Mansoor was arrested in an illegal and unconstitutional action. They claimed that a ‘conspiracy’ was being hatched to implicate him in concocted cases after acquiring his remand.
The statement further read that the leader had been arrested during the previous operation conducted in the 1990s and had since not been able to fully recover from the physical torture inflicted upon him back then.