A 101-year-old prisoner, Mehdi Khan, who is currently serving life imprisonment for murder in District Jail Gujrat has appealed to the jail superintendent, Punjab Prisons Inspector General Mirza Shahid Saleem Baig and the Punjab government seeking early release, it emerged on Friday.

Khan, who was booked on murder charges in 2006, stated in his appeal that he could not see and walk properly and needed extra care to complete his daily routine activities.

In 2009, the trial court had acquitted him in the case, but the complainants subsequently challenged the verdict in the Lahore High Court (LHC), which sentenced him to life imprisonment in 2019 when he had just crossed 100 years of age.

Khan was then shifted to jail where he is currently serving his sentence. The prisoner is suffering from several ailments and has appealed for early release citing ill health and his age.

Earlier, Khan had also filed a writ petition in the LHC seeking premature release in accordance with rule 146 of the Jail Manual. Under the rule, a superintendent "may recommend a prisoner for premature release who owing to old age, infirmity or illness is permanently incapable from the commission of further crime of nature of that for which he has been convicted."

"The case should be submitted through the Inspector General. It shall be accompanied by the recommendation of a medical officer. The Inspector General will in all such cases obtain the medical opinion of the medical board which will be convened by the Director of Health Services. The board will send its opinion through the Inspector General," the rule states.

Khan's counsel Advocate Hamza Haider told Dawn that the jail administration had submitted in the court that the prisoner was ailing and was also over 100 years of age. He added that the prison's legal department had submitted that they would provide medical facilities to the prisoner.

The counsel said that the court had disposed of the petition with direction to the Punjab Prisons Department to provide health facilities to the prisoner.

However, the court order, a copy of which is available with Dawn states that the petition was dismissed for "not being pressed" after the section officer for Punjab Home Department said that the department had received Khan's application along with a report of the medical board and was "ready to decide" within a fortnight.

Meanwhile, Gujrat District Jail Superintendent Malik Liaqat Ali told Dawn that they were providing all possible health facilities to the prisoner who is currently under treatment at the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Hospital.

“It was the third time that the prisoner was shifted to the local hospital for treatment and his health report conducted by the medical board has already been presented in court,” he said.

The superintendent added that under the law, he did "not have any provision to prematurely release a prisoner as it was the jurisdiction of the victims who could forgive".