KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday directed the jail authorities to ensure that if any suspect was remanded to judicial custody, the same must not be admitted in prisons without proper screening and test of coronavirus.

The SHC Chief Justice, Justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh, issued fresh directive to the inspector general of prisons for new prisoners in continuation of earlier directives issued on Monday.

In a separate circular, issued by the registrar of SHC on Tuesday, it was stated that considering the present situation of spreading of pandemic coronavirus, the chief justice further issued directives that if any family member of the employees of SHC was infected by coronavirus, he/she must not attend duty and immediately send intimation to the office so that necessary measures for their treatment should be taken.

It also asked the budget branch of the SHC to arrange sanitisers, face masks and gloves and provide the same to the court employees.

It may be recalled that on Monday, the SHC directed the provincial authorities for complete screening of inmates confined in all detention facilities of the province within a week.

Earlier, the SHC had also asked the provincial authorities to launch a fumigation drive in prisons of the provinces and prevent unnecessary entry of public at all detention facilities.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2020