ISLAMABAD, Feb 28: The Supreme Court on Tuesday took exception to forging of signatures of a civil judge to secure judicial remand of an accused without producing him before court for nine months.

A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Mohammad Arif and Justice Tariq Parvez had taken up the bail petition of Ali Nawaz arrested for allegedly murdering his wife.

At the last hearing, an inspection team of Lahore High Court had pointed out that some police officers had forged signatures of Civil Judge/Magistrate first Class, Lahore Cantt, Saifullah Tarar to show that Ali Nawaz was produced in the court for judicial remand. But the jail record indicated that the accused was never taken to court.

On Tuesday, Prosecutor General Punjab Sadaqat Ali Khan informed the court that from February 22 to 25, as many as 29,395 challans had been submitted to the courts and instructions had been issued to all prosecutors to streamline their working for submitting the challans to courts.

On Feb 23, Inspector General of Punjab police Haji Habibur Rehman had told the court that 2,316 prisoners were in jails without submission of challans.

The Supreme Court ordered the inspector general (prisons) to submit a report about the condition of prisons throughout the province.

The police officer was also directed to include in the terms of reference of an inquiry being conducted by DIG Major Mubashirullah to fix responsibility on the police officials or jail authorities/officials etc., for getting fake judicial orders regarding remands of prisoners.— Staff Reporter