PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Monday ordered the provincial government to constitute a medical board for examining a prisoner who claimed to be suffering from a mental ailment and was unfit to stand trial in a murder case.

The single-member bench of Justice Mussarat Hilali ordered that the trial court should consider the case of the petitioner, Majid Khan, in the light of the report to be submitted by the medical board.

The bench regretted that representatives of the government had been creating an impression on private TV channels as if the judiciary was averse to provision of medical treatment to ailing prisoners.

The judge pointed out that whenever petitions of prisoners suffering from any illness were taken up for hearing, the relevant courts issued directives for provision of medical treatment, but unfortunately legal representatives of the government opposed every such petition arguing that proper medical treatment was available inside prison.

The petitioner’s counsel argued that his client had long been suffering from schizophrenia but the trial court had overlooked that fact.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2019