PESHAWAR, Nov 25: Prisoners in the NWFP are not treated on a par with their counterparts in other provinces, as they have not been granted remission for the period when they remain as under-trial prisoners, claim legal experts.

Following a judgment of the Peshawar High Court in May last year, prison authorities in the province have not been counting remissions granted by the competent authorities to prisoners for the period when they were under-trial prisoners.

Previously, when the benefit of section 382-B of the Criminal Procedure Code was extended to a convict by a trial court, the authorities counted his prison term from the date of his arrest for the purpose of granting remissions.

However, the high court’s bench ruled in the case of Akber Marwat that if the benefit of section 382-B of the CrPC was given to a convict then the time he had spent in prison before his conviction should be counted in his sentence, but the remissions granted by the competent authorities during that period should not be included in the prison term.

It is learnt that over 200 prisoners are placed in a disadvantaged position due to the said judgment of the high court. As compared to the NWFP, the prison authorities in other provinces have been allowing remissions to the prisoners for the period before their conviction.

Under section 382-B CrPC, the period of detention of a prisoner has to be considered in the prison term when a person is convicted by a trial court.

Legal experts claimed that contrary to the judgment of the Peshawar High Court, the high courts in other provinces in some of their judgments had ruled that when the benefit of section 382-B of the CrPC was given to a convict by a trial court then the remissions granted by the competent authorities during the period of his detention before his conviction should also be counted in his sentence.

A division bench of the Lahore High Court observed in a case (Chaudhry Aamir Ali versus State 2002 YLR 1902): “The moment benefit of section 382-b CrPC is given to a convict, the period in which he remained in detention as an under-trial prisoner would be counted towards his substantive sentence and legally he would be deemed to be in jail as a convict since the date of his arrest and would certainly be entitled to the benefit of remissions granted by the competent authorities to the convicts after the said date.”

The Peshawar High Court’s verdict was delivered by a division bench headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk on May 17, 2002, in a habeas corpus petition filed by Akber Khan Marwat, a former additional secretary of housing and physical planning department, convicted by an accountability court.

Appeal against that judgment has been pending before the Supreme Court since last year.

The PHC bench had observed: “The stage at which the grant of the benefit of section 382-B is to be considered by the court is when it is passing sentence of imprisonment after convicting the accused. The section does not say that the sentence of imprisonment shall commence from the date of arrest of the convict but only that period of detention already undergone by him as an under-trial prisoner shall be counted towards his sentence of imprisonment.”

The court added: “The clear wordings of the section does not allow the creation of a legal fiction by which the sentence of imprisonment shall be made to commence from a date prior to its imposition.”

The bench observed that under Rule 206(i) of the Prison Rules, remission should be calculated from the first day of the calendar month next following the date of the prisoner’s sentence.

The court also discussed Rule 199 of the Prison Rules and observed that the said two rules clearly indicated that the remission under the Prison Rules could be earned by a convict only, who had been sentenced to imprisonment. The rules do not admit of any remissions to an under-trial prisoner.