01 March 2005	Tuesday	19 Muharram 1426

ISLAMABAD, Feb 28: A judge of the Supreme Court during the hearing in the Sialkot Jail killing case on Monday wondered why a former district and sessions judge of Sialkot had taken so many civil judges , even his driver, to the jail to inspect women's barracks and whether he faced any departmental inquiry in this regard.

"The question is had these judges gone there to see some kind of a funfair?" Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday asked when the court was told that the driver of the sessions judge in his evidence had confirmed that the doctors arraigned in the case had failed to give prompt medical aid to a civil judge, Shaharyar Bokhari, who had later died of his injuries.

A three-member bench comprising Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday and Justice M Javed Buttar were hearing the Sialkot Jail killing case in which four civil judges had been killed. Justice Iftikhar also regretted that administrative controls at the jails were pathetic where women, narcotics and even weapons were easily accessible.

When the court was told that the ex-superintendent of Sialkot Jail, Sikander Hayat, who had been promoted to the post three months earlier, had gone on vacations a few days before the incident, Justice Iftikhar inquired who had been responsible for supplying arms to the jail, saying that the jail superintendents before going on leave always left a note about dangerous prisoners.a