KARACHI: The Sindh High Court chief justice on Wednesday highlighted the need for all stakeholders to play their due role in provision of better facilities and justice to prisoners across the province though the SHC judges have done considerably well in this direction.

He was addressing a full court reference held on the SHC premises to bid farewell to the outgoing Justice Syed Mohammad Farooq Shah.

Expressing grave concern over the state of affairs in the jails, Chief Justice Sheikh said that being the top judge of the provincial judiciary it was his responsibility to ensure provision of justice for may innocent prisoners who had been languishing in jail for a long time.

Lauding the role of Justice Shah and other SHC judges, he said that his colleagues had done considerably well to ensure better facilities for the inmates, adding “but there is still need of all stakeholders including the bench for playing their due role in this regard”.

The chief justice said that he saw Justice Shah crying on the poor condition of prisoners and lack of facilities for them. “The SHC judges, while putting their lives in danger, have tried to resolve the issues of jail and inmates,” he added.

Justice Shah said inmates’ condition was worse than animals. “The people have been miserably waiting for justice for several years,” he lamented.

About alleged fake encounters, Justice Shah said he had sent 65 “‘half fried and full fried” (a term used by police for injured and killed victims in fake encounters) suspected cases to inspector general of police. “It is quite regrettable that the law enforcement agencies, whose job is to protect the citizens, are involved in fake encounters. This is very dangerous and unacceptable,” he added.

The reference was attended by sitting and former judges of the high court, additional attorney, advocate general, additional advocate general of Sindh, representatives of Sindh Bar Council and senior lawyers.

The chief justice had earlier taken notice of jails’ dilapidated conditions and directed the district and sessions judges to visit jails within their respective jurisdictions every week. He had also designated judicial magistrates for speedy disposal of ordinary criminal cases. Besides, the chief justice had asked the IG prisons to ensure provision of medical aid and other basic facilities to the prisoners under the jail laws.

Ex-IGP’s interim bail extended

Meanwhile, a two-judge bench extended till Oct 26 the interim pre-arrest bail granted to former IG police Ghulam Haider Jamali and other senior police officers in Rs50million corruption case.

During the hearing, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor informed the judges that the reference of Rs50 million corruption had been filed in the accountability court.

The NAB had carried out the investigation in the light of the report of a three-member fact finding committee which was appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate irregularities in recruitments in police.

The former police chief along with Additional IG Finance Fida Hussain, the then Sindh Reserve Police (SRP) head Aitezaz Ahmed, then SSP Ghulam Azfar Mahesar, then Matiari district SP Amjad Ahmed Shaikh, SP Khalid Mustafa Korai and others were booked in a reference for allegedly causing loss to the national exchequer by misusing their authority and making illegal appointments.

It was alleged that the accused police officers misused their authority and circumvented the required procedure to make illegal appointments in the Sindh police and the Sindh Reserve Police in particular, causing a loss of over Rs50million to the national exchequer.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2017