SHC issues notices on plea for constitution of commission to probe ‘torture on Nisar Morai’

The Sindh High Court on Friday issued notices to the provincial inspector general of prisons, the home secretary and others on an application seeking the constitution of an inquiry committee to probe the allegations of alleged torture on former Fishermen’s Cooperative Society chairman Nisar Morai, who has been incarcerated over accusations of illegal appointments and embezzlement of funds.

Petitioner Dr Seema Nisar Morai submitted that her spouse 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 prisoners by 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 high court was requested to constitute an inquiry commission to probe the allegations of torture on Dr Nisar Morai, take action against the jail authorities and order the registration of a case against Prisons IG Nusrat Mangan and his associates for taking the law into 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. It told prisons IG, the home secretary and others to file comments on the application and adjourned the hearing by November 12.

Morai and other former officials of the FCS were charged with illegally appointing 400 employees in 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.