Prisons chief gets notice on plea against moving Uzair to Rangers hostel

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday issued notices to the additional chief secretary, the prisons chief and others on a petition against the shifting of Lyari’s alleged gangster Uzair Jan Baloch from the Central Jail Karachi to the Rangers’ Metharam Hostel by declaring it a sub-jail.

Petitioner Razia Begum, Baloch’s mother, said that her son had been incarcerated in connection with various criminal cases at the central prison through a judicial order. Her counsel said that through a notification issued on June 9, 2020, the additional chief secretary had ordered moving Baloch to the Rangers’ Metharam Hostel by declaring it a sub-jail.

He said that the impugned notification had been issued without seeking the approval of a court of law, and had put the petitioner’s son into the custody of the Rangers. He also said that the detainee is still facing trials in several criminal cases, and he has the right to a fair trial. He added that the detainee is a political person who had been remanded to judicial custody by the court, so he cannot be detained in the Rangers’ custody.

The court was requested to declare the impugned notification unlawful, and to direct the provincial government to transfer the custody of the petitioner’s son from the Metharam Hostel to the central jail. After the preliminary hearing of the petition, a division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha issued notices to the federal law officer, the additional chief secretary, the prisons chief and others, telling them to file their comments within four weeks.

Baloch had been sentenced to 12 years in prison by the field general court martial on charges of espionage. His family told the court that the law enforcement agencies had shown his arrest to have been made in January 2016, and that he had been booked and chargesheeted in 40 terrorism-related cases that were also pending in anti-terrorism courts.