KARACHI, Feb 4: In different jails of the metropolis, 8,131 under trial prisoners out of 9,410 have been waiting for their turn to be produced in the courts, but due to the mismanagement and lack of interest on part of the concerned high-ups many of the inmates have so far failed to get speedy justice and are undergoing an unannounced imprisonment.

At present, there are 44 under trial prisoners and seven detainees in the Special Prison for Women. In Youthful Offenders Industrial School, there are 333 under trail prisoners and five detainees. Besides, 4,835 UTPs have been languishing in the Central Prison and 2,919 in the District Jail Malir.

Some of the judicial officers told this reporter on condition of anonymity that jail authorities were using delaying tactics in production of the accused to the courts and were even neglecting the judicial orders in this regard. They said the prisoners were not produced in courts even for months and as a result hundreds of people have been undergoing imprisonment.

The Superintendent of Central Prison Karachi, Nusrat Mangan, says it is the duty of the court police to produce prisoners in courts and jail police have nothing to do with this.

When contacted, In charge of Court Police DSP Pervaiz said he had a very limited staff and vehicles which could not meet the requirement. Besides the production of prisoners in courts, his staff also had to do the duties of law and order.

A source in the court police disclosed that there were 17 vehicles with a capacity of 35 persons each, but generally 60 prisoners were crammed into each van. There is no workshop for the repair of vehicles and due to non-payment of bills the supply of diesel has also been stopped. These vehicles have to travel to 16 different areas including courts in the five districts, hospitals, besides supporting the regular police in case of emergency, like Muharam and Eid.

It was informed that 600 to 750 prisoners were produced in courts daily and in case any of the vehicles developed any fault in prisoners had to wait and suffer, as there was no alternative. For the production of the prisoners, the department has 94 police constables, 12 head constables, six assistant sub-inspectors and five sub-inspectors.

Sources said 20 out of 50 posts of the drivers had been lying vacant since long. The details of other vacant posts from constables to the inspector level in different districts of Karachi are: In the District West 84 out of 154 posts were vacant, in the District Central 63 out of 123, in the South 62 out of 122, in the East 91 out of 172 and in District Malir 109 out of 172.

It was told that the policy had not been revised since 1994 and the above mentioned resources were basically meant for the districts Central and West.

“The lockup in the city court has the authorised capacity of 150 persons, where more than 500 persons are kept at a time, and in such a condition the policemen could not serve meal to all of them,” told a police officer in the courts.