SHC dismisses MQM-P’s petition against solitary confinement of activists

The Sindh High Court on Friday dismissed a petition moved by the Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan against the alleged solitary confinement of its activists in Central Prison.

MQM-P leader Kanwar Naveed Jamil had submitted in the petition that more than 100 under-trial prisoners belonging to MQM, who were incarcerated in different criminal cases, were being kept in unlawful solitary confinement since July 13, 2017, and not being provided facilities as per jail rules.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that under-trial prisoners cannot be placed in solitary confinement and jail authorities are bound to provide them facilities as per the prison law. He submitted that families of the under-trial prisoners were not being allowed to meet them and requested the court to direct the prison authorities to shift the prisoners to barracks from solitary confinement cells.

An SHC division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro observed that the petition was filed on August 28, 2017, but since then the counsel had not taken interest in pursuing the case as no one appeared at the last date of hearing.

The court then dismissed the petition on the basis of non-prosecution. Earlier, the jail superintendent had denied the allegations made in the petition and submitted in court that they were false and fabricated.

He said the jail authorities was performing duties under the rules and regulations and established writ of the government. In an earlier hearing in October, the SHC had directed the MQM-P counsel to submit details of the party’s under-trial activists allegedly being kept under solitary confinement by jail authorities and issued notices to the provincial law officer and jail authorities to submit their comments.