The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Sindh advocate general (AG), home department and others seeking their comments on an application against overcrowding and the lack of basic facilities in the province’s prisons.
Applicant Tariq Mansoor submitted in the application that prisons of Sindh, especially central prison in Karachi, was overcrowded and more prisoners were being kept than the sanctioned capacity.
According to Mansoor, more than 6,000 inmates are being kept at central prisons and they were not being provided proper facilities as per jail manuals. He further said that cases of under-trial prisoners have been pending for several years and due to a lack of jail transport several prisoners were not produced before the relevant trial courts. The court directed the provincial advocate general, home secretary and others to file their comments on Mansoor’s application.
MQM’s candidate plea
Meanwhile, the Sindh High Court has directed the National Accountability Bureau and other respondents to file comments on the petition of former chairman Karachi Port Trust and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan candidate against his arrest in a corruption case.
Petitioner Javed Hanif, an MQM-P candidate for provincial assembly constituency PS-95, had challenged his arrest in a NAB reference pertaining to illegal appointments in KPT.
Rasheed Razvi, the counsel for the petitioner, submitted that the NAB chairman had directed that no candidate would be arrested before the polling day on July 25. However, his candidate Javed Hanif, a candidate in the run for a Sindh Assembly seat, was arrested by NAB in violation of the directives of its own chairman.
The counsel submitted that recently the Supreme Court had also exempted Pakistan Peoples Party’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur, also contesting elections from national assembly constituencies in Nawabshah, from appearing before the pending inquiries till polling day, but his client was arrested in a NAB inquiry and was not being allowed to run his election campaign.
The court was requested to release the petitioner on bail so that he could continue campaigning. The court directed NAB and others to file comments on the petition and adjourned the hearing till July 27.
NAB had arrested the former KPT chairman on charges of misuse of powers and illegal appointments in KPT causing a loss of Rs2.80 billion to the exchequer.
Detention case
The SHC also directed the Sindh police chief to conduct an inquiry into the illegal detention of a citizen who was shown arrested after alleged unlawful confinement of nearly two years.
Petitioner Abdul Razak submitted that his son Dr Abdul Rehman was taken into custody from Gulshan-e-Iqbal in December 2016 and after nearly two years of illegal confinement he was shown arrested on charges of collecting donations for a banned outfit by the counter-terrorism department.
