Prisons IG directed to file comments on plea against mistreatment of Nisar Morai

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the prisons IG and others to file comments on a petition seeking registration of case against him and his subordinate staff for misusing authority, and restoration of medical facilities to former chairman of Fishermen’s Cooperative Society Nisar Morai, who has been incarcerated over accusations of illegal appointments and embezzlement of funds.

Petitioner Dr Seema Nisar Morai submitted that her spouse Morai was facing a trial before an accountability court over references pertaining to illegal appointments, embezzlement of funds and corruption, and had been confined in the Landhi prison for the last two years.

She submitted that her spouse had complained to the prisons minister during his visit on July 26 about mistreatment of the prisoners by the prison staff who demanded bribes from the prisoners’ relatives in the name of the prisons IG.

She informed the SHC that after her spouse told the minister about the sorry state of affairs of the prison, the jail authorities became annoyed, subjected him to severe torture and shifted him to the central prison.

The petitioner’s counsel, Khawaja Naveed Ahmed, submitted that Morai’s life was in danger as he was not being provided medical facilities.

The high court was requested to take action against the jail authorities and order the registration of a case against Prisons IG Nusrat Mangan and his associates for taking law in their own hands and misusing state power for their personal grudge. The court was asked to direct the jail authorities to restore medical facilities to the petitioner’s spouse as per the jail manual and order the transfer of the prisons IG who had been holding the same office for the last 10 years.

The jail authorities requested the SHC to grant more time to them to file comments. The court approved their request and directed them to file comments on September 18.

Morai and other former officials of FCS were charged with illegally appointing 400 employees in the FCS during the period between 2014 and July 2017, making illegal contracts of construction and embezzling money in trash fish sale without auction, causing a loss of Rs343.796 million to the national exchequer.