PESHAWAR: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued show cause notices to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inspector general of prisons and the additional chief secretary (home), directing them to appear in person today (Wednesday) to explain their position for not complying with its order.
A bench comprising Justice Mohammad Hashim Khan Kakar, Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim directed the two officials to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them.
While hearing an appeal filed by convict Gul Nawab on Oct 13, the bench had noted that he had been sentenced to life imprisonment but was released by jail authorities after he spent nine years, 11 months and 16 days behind bars.
Summons them for explaining their position about early release of prisoner from jail
It had observed that prima facie, the calculation of his period of imprisonment was contrary to the applicable statutory framework, the Prison Rules and the law laid down by the court in the case of Nawaz Hussain versus State.
In that case, it had been authoritatively established that life imprisonment denoted incarceration for the remaining natural life of the convict and that remissions, howsoever liberally granted, couldn’t reduce the substantive period of custody below the statutory period of 15 years of actual imprisonment.
The bench had subsequently issued notices to the KP advocate general, the inspector general of prisons and the additional chief secretary (home), seeking a joint report containing para-wise comments within a fortnight. The report was to include complete details of the remissions granted to the convict and explain under what legal authority he had been released after serving the aforementioned period of actual imprisonment.
The bench had also asked the officials to explain why the convict’s premature release should not be declared illegal and void and why he should not be remanded to custody to serve out the unexpired portion of his substantive sentence in terms of the law laid down by the court.
According to a show-cause notice issued to the two officials by an additional registrar of the Supreme Court’s Peshawar Registry, they had been directed through a notice issued on Oct 16 to submit a joint report by Oct 20 (Tuesday), but no report had been filed before the court.
“On the last date of hearing i.e., 13.10.2026, we had issued notices to the Inspector General of Prisons, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Additional Chief Secretary, Home and Tribal Affairs Department, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Today, when the case was taken up, neither the Inspector General of Prisons nor the Additional Chief Secretary, Home and Tribal Affairs Department, KPK, are in attendance nor there is any intimation why they could not appear,” the bench observed.
It added that it was dismayed by the conduct of the officials, directing the issuance of show-cause notices to them for showing up today (Wednesday) to explain why they have failed to comply with its orders and why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them.
Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2026
