12 April 2004	Monday	21 Safar 1425

PESHAWAR, April 11: Dozens of convicted prisoners have requested the chief justice of the Supreme Court to decide at the earliest different appeals pertaining to grant of remission to them for the period during the hearing of their cases.

It is learnt that prisoners in different prisons of the NWFP have sent letters to the Supreme Court and human rights organizations stating that the appeals had been pending for about two years.

They claimed that the convicted prisoners in the NWFP had not been treated at par with those in the other provinces and they had not been granted remission for the period they had spent in prison before their conviction. A Peshawar High Court division bench ruled in May 2002 that the remissions announced by different authorities could not be given to the prisoners for the period spent in prison before their conviction.

The bench presided over by Justice Nasirul Mulk dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by a former housing and physical planning additional secretary, Akber Marwat, who had prayed that he be released as he had undergone his prison term.

Different benches of the court continued to follow the judgment but in December 2003, the PHC's Abbottabad circuit bench extended remission toa prisoner for the period he had spent in prison during the hearing of the trial. A large number of prisoners started seeking remission on the basis of judgment.

Another bench ruled on Jan 29 that prisoners could not be given remission for their pre-conviction period spent in prison. If the Supreme Court overturns the verdict, dozens of prisoners would be released.

Before the May 2002 judgment, when the prisoners were granted benefit of Section 382-B of the Criminal Procedure Code, the prison authorities used to grant remission to the prisoners for the detention period before their conviction.

Under the section, the trial court is empowered to consider the time spent by a convict in prison before his conviction in his prison term. The bench observed that if the benefit of Section 382-B was given to a convict by the trial court, the time he had spent in prison before his conviction should be counted in his sentence, but the remissions granted during the period should not be included in the prison term.

The bench observed that under Rule 206(i) of the Prison Rules, remission should be calculated from the first day of the month following the award of the sentence. It observed that the remission under the Prison Rules could be earned only by a convict and not an under-trial prisoner.

"We have received numerous appeals from convicts who could be released if remissions are extended to them for the period before their conviction," said The Voice of Prisoners Chairman Advocate Noor Alam.

He said the prisoners had sent letters to the Supreme Court, requesting that the appeals against the judgments of the high court be decided at the earliest. He said that as trials lingered on due to no fault of the accused, they should be entitled to remission for the period before their conviction.