PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed the Peshawar Central Prison’s superintendent to respond to the petition of a Christian prisoner against his 10-year-long detention without trial and the missing records of his case from the relevant court in Khyber tribal district.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Syed M Attique Shah issued a notice to the prison superintendent after holding preliminary hearing into the petition of Shakeel Masih, who requested the court to declare his confinement illegal, unconstitutional and against his basic rights.

Lawyer Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel appeared for the petitioner and contended that without assigning any reason, the relevant trial court had been extending judicial custody of his client after every 14 days for keeping him imprisoned.

Prisoner’s lawyer insists case records also missing from Khyber court

He requested the court to declare that the orders of the trial court to grant judicial custody to the prison authorities without recording any reason is against the basic principles of criminal justice.

The lawyer further prayed the court to order his client’s release over a lack of evidence.

The petition was filed early this month.

Few days ago, an application was filed on behalf of the petitioner requesting the court for permission to produce more documents regarding his plea.

The application also carried several documents showing correspondence of the relevant district judge and district public prosecutor with the officials of the Frontier Corps asking them to produce the relevant file to the court.

The respondents in the petition are the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through advocate general, KP inspector general (prisons), interior secretary, Khyber district public prosecutor, district and sessions judge of Khyber district, and Peshawar Central Prison’s superintendent.

Lawyer Kakakhel, who is known for public interest litigation, said the petitioner was arrested around 10 years ago on the charge of killing some military officials but no document to that effect, including the FIR, was available.

He contended that there was no FIR or any incriminating evidence against him and he was behind bars without any lawful justification.

The lawyer said that his client had not been given any document related to his case as required by the Code of Criminal Procedure.

He wondered when records of his case were not available with the court, then how it was possible for it to allow his judicial custody and detention for an indefinite period.

The lawyer contended that when no evidence was available against him or record of his case was missing, the trial court should have either acquitted him or released him on bail until the case records were produced by the authorities.

He argued that the trial court had the powers to acquit an accused under Section 265-K of the CrPC when there was insufficient evidence against him and the complainant and witnesses didn’t appear before it.

He said his client had not been given the right to a fair trial that was guaranteed by Article 10-A of the Constitution.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2021