SHC suspends ex-jail chief, other personnel’s sentences

The Sindh High Court on Monday suspended the sentences of a former jail superintendent and four other officials in the jailbreak case and ordered releasing them on bail.

Former jail superintendent Ghulam Murtaza Sheikh, deputy superintendent Faheem Anwar Memon, assistant superintendent Abdul Rehman Sheikh, Salik Ayaz Sheikh and Rafiq Ahmed Channa along with others were sentenced to two years in imprisonment each by an anti-terrorism court for their negligence that resulted in the escape of the suspected Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants Shaikh Mohammad Mumtaz and Mohammad Ahmed Khan from the jail premises on June 13, 2017.

They were booked by the police on charges of abetment, disappearance of evidence and harbouring criminals. According to the prosecution, the terrorism suspects of the banned militant outfit, who were involved in several terrorism- related killing cases, had escaped from the judicial complex inside the central prison where they had been brought by jail officials in connection with the hearing of some cases.

The appellants filed appeals against the convictions and requested the court to set aside the trial court order. The appellants’ counsel, Aamir Mansoor Qureshi, Mohammad Farooq and others, submitted that the appellants were falsely implicated in the cases. They submitted that the appellants had nothing to do with the offence of the jailbreak, the escape by the two prisoners and the recovery of prohibited items in the prison.

They sought suspension of sentences as they had already completed a major portion of the sentences and it was unlikely that their appeals would be decided in the near future. They submitted that eight other convicts had already undergone their sentences prior to the decision on their appeals and requested the court to suspend the sentences of the appellants till the appeals were decided.

A division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro, after hearing the arguments of the counsel, observed that the appeals of the convicts were not likely to be decided in the near future due to a heavy backlog of cases. The court observed that as per the jail roll of the appellants they had undergone a major portion of their sentences.

The court suspended the sentences of the appellants and granted them to bail subject to furnishing a surety of Rs2,00,000 each.