04 June 2004	Friday	15 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

ISLAMABAD, June 3: The Federal Shariat Court on Thursday asked the federation to provide it complete information about the number of death cells in different jails of Punjab, their sizes and condemned prisoners actually being incarcerated in them.

A full bench of the FSC comprising Chief Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Yousuf, Justice Allama Dr Fida Mohammad Khan and Justice Saeedur Farrukh, issued the directive while hearing a Shariat petition challenging various provisions of laws relating to imprisonment and jail manual.

Later, the bench adjourned the hearing for a month with a direction to the federation to submit the relevant information within the prescribed time. The bench observed that it had been receiving letters from prisoners about the pathetic conditions in different jails as a large number of condemned prisoners were being kept in small cubicles called death cells, besides scores of mercy petitions had been pending at different levels like Supreme Court, president, prime minister or the GHQ for the last 10 to 12 years.

The petition is moved by Aslam Khaki advocate and Ijaz Hussain, who is released after completing life term, about conditions in jail, seeking declaration from the court against certain provisions of the jail manual as repugnant to Islam.

The legal points for discussion before the Shariat bench include permissibility of using fetters for safe custody of prisoners, authority of a jail superintendent to punish any prisoner and classification like A and B in jails for people of different categories and status.

The petitioners have also requested the court to decide whether a convict, after completing the prescribed punishment becomes eligible for employment; whether a prisoner should be allowed conjugal rights in prison; who should be authorized to check the affairs of jail management and whether the state was responsible to provide financial assistance to prisoners and their families.

The petitioners have also raised the matter of discrimination meted out to poor prisoners in the implementation of concurrent sentences and have questioned the right of a jail superintendent to read letters of prisoners in addition to permission to keep pen and paper by the prisoners for writing purpose.

The petitioners have pleaded that educational background, profession, nature of the crime and the usual behaviour of a convict or a case of political victimization should be made criteria to determine in which class a prisoner should fall.

The present practice prevalent in jails, according to the petitioners, was that even convicts involved in heinous crimes like homicide were granted A Class if they had strong financial links, otherwise they were put in a condemned prison cell.