LAHORE, Nov 7: The owner and editor-in-chief of The Frontier Post, Rehmat Shah Afridi, sentenced to death in a narcotics case, broke down at a meeting with reporters in his Kot Lakhpat Jail cell on Thursday while complaining of a lack of facilities.

The reporters were taken to the jail by Punjab law minister Rana Ejaz Ahmad Khan and members of the provincial Human Rights Commission who also announced release of some prisoners languishing in the jail because of their inability to pay fines or Diyat.

On seeing reporters in front of his cell where he was kept alone, Mr Afridi started crying. Narrating his difficulties, he told reporters that he was suffering from backache, heart and renal problems and skin disease but was not provided proper facilities. He said he had requested for B-Class but was not even given C-Class facilities.

Mr Afridi said a team of doctors from Services Hospital examined him on Wednesday and asked him to change his clothes, which, they said, were aggravating his skin disease. However, he said, he was still wearing the same clothes because he had none else.

The only facility appeared to be two newspapers that he daily gets. He uses a small blanket provided by his family for sleeping on the floor and has no pillow. The only entertainment for him are the pictures of his children that he keeps looking at most of the time.

He claimed that he was falsely implicated and was ready to face public hanging if charges against him could be proved in a trial held in the presence of media personnel.

Mr Afridi said he had not spent any money during the horse-trading of assembly members in 1988 but did use his contacts to win over the favour of some members for the PPP.