PESHAWAR: Around 56 convicted prisoners of Peshawar Central Prison on Thursday moved Peshawar High Court against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and high-ups of prison department for non-implementation of its judgement allowing remissions to prisoners convicted under narcotics law.
The prisoners including Abdul Khaliq and 55 others filed a contempt petition, seeking directives of the court for respondents including KP chief secretary and inspector general of prisons to immediately implement the court’s judgement of June 18, 2026, in letter and spirit.
They sought directives for respondents to undertake revised sentence calculations of all affected prisoners strictly in accordance with the judgement of the court and immediately release those prisoners, whose sentences had completed after lawful adjustment of remissions.
They requested the court to issue directives to respondents to submit a comprehensive compliance report, duly supported by individual sentence/remission calculation sheets, within such short period as the court may deem appropriate.
Seek action against relevant officers under contempt law
The petitioners also prayed the court to issue contempt notices to respondents and initiate contempt proceedings against the alleged contemnors under Article 204 of the Constitution of Pakistan read with sections 2(a), 3, 4 and 5 of Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003, for wilful and deliberate disobedience of the judgement.
The petition has been filed by senior lawyer Shabbir Hussain Gigyani pro bono including as respondents the KP chief secretary, its home secretary, IG prisons and the superintendent of Peshawar Central prison.
Petitioners have also sought declaration of court that the pendency of any civil petition for leave to appeal (CPLA), in the absence of any specific stay or restraining order of Supreme Court, didn’t absolve respondents from compliance with the judgement.
They have also sought multiple interim reliefs from the high court till pendency of the petition.
They said that they were sentenced in cases registered under Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997, prior to promulgation of an amendment whereby remission benefits were purportedly excluded in narcotics cases.
They stated that they, along with other similarly placed prisoners, approached the high court through a petition last year, seeking declaration that the subsequent amendment could not retrospectively deprive them of the remission benefits available under the law applicable to them at the relevant time.
They said that after hearing the parties at length, the high court had allowed the petition on June 18, 2026, whereby the impugned amendment was declared unconstitutional and competent authorities were directed to extend to petitioners remission benefits available under the previous legal regime.
They stated that the court had specifically directed relevant jail authorities to examine the sentences of affected prisoners and extend the admissible remission benefits and submit a compliance report within a period of 45 days.
The petitioners stated that pursuant to the judgement, jail authorities undertook sentence calculations of affected prisoners and, upon applying the remission benefits directed by the court, it transpired that the petitioners had already completed their sentences.
They claimed that in several cases, petitioners had not only completed the sentence after lawful adjustment of remission but remained in custody even beyond the period which remained legally executable after such remission.
Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2026
