SHC seeks details of MQM-Pakistan activists in solitary confinement

The Sindh High Court on Wednesday directed the Muttahida Quami Movement – Pakistan’s counsel to submit details of party’s under trial activists allegedly being kept under solitary confinement by jail authorities.

The direction came on MQM-P’s petition against over hundreds of its activists incarcerated in solitary jails at the central prison. MQM’s leader Kanwar Naveed Jamil claimed that over 100 under-trial prisoners belonging to MQM, facing various criminal cases, were being unlawfully kept in solitary confinement since July 13. He maintained that the inmates were not being provided with facilities enshrined in jail rules.

The petitioner’s counsel maintained that under trial prisoners cannot be confined in solitary prisons and that jail authorities are bound to provide them facilities as per prison laws.

The court was also informed about the under-trial prisoners not being allowed to meet their families and requested the court to direct the prison authorities to shift them to jail cells from solitary prisons. SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto directed the petitioner’s counsel to provide details of cases and activists confined at the prison and issued notices to the provincial law officer and jail authorities to submit their comments.