F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmad Wednesday took a strict view on the release of prisoners amidst the coronavirus outbreak, saying any measure in that regard would be taken according to the law.
He made these remarks while heading a five-member larger bench comprising on Justic Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed.
During the course of proceedings, the court directed the federal and provincial governments and as well as the Gilgit Baltistan and Islamabad Capital Territory Administration to put up a report before this court, about the measures and expected threats of coronavirus (COVID-19) in their respective areas and the measures that had been adopted to overcome and tackle this pandemic.
The court also asked what steps had been taken up for providing necessary training and equipping the doctors and paramedic staff for dealing with this pandemic and also what measures so far had been adopted for providing medicines, protective dresses, kits, medical equipments, ventilators and hospital beds for treatment of the patients affected by this pandemic.
The court also asked what was the state of readiness of all the hospitals of these governments, to provide adequate treatment to the patients; what inventory/stock these governments were maintaining for the provision of medicines, protective dresses, kits, medical equipment, ventilators, hospital beds for meeting the looming surge of this pandemic; and whether continuous process of training of doctors and paramedical staff for dealing with this pandemic was being undertaken by the governments and if not, what measures they would adopt for doing it now.
The court also sought a comprehensive report regarding the above aspects of the matter shall also be made available by the respective governments to this court well before the next date of hearing on April 6.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa advocate general informed that the jail authorities in the province had effectively provided quarantine centres in their jails and the same had also been done by the jail authorities in the province of Punjab.
The court asked whether any such quarantine centres had been established by the remaining jails in Pakistan such as; in the provinces of Sindh, Balochistan, ICT and GB and their position be also stated in writing to the court before the next date of hearing.
The court directed that quarantine centres be made by the respective jail authorities, immediately, preferably today (Wednesday) with all necessary infrastructure.
The SCBAP president also said more than 800 posts of jail doctor were lying vacant and no steps were being taken by the respective governments for filling up these posts.
The court directed all the provincial governments, ICT and GB to fill up the posts of jail doctors immediately, without waste of any time and the governments’ position in this regard be put up before the next date of hearing.
It was pointed out to the court that daily a large number of prisoners enter the jail premises and the jail authorities had not made any arrangement of screening of these new entrants in the jail, thus, an order may be passed by this court that the new entrants were screened before they were allowed to enter the jail premises and if they were found to have any sign of coronavirus (COVID-19), they should be appropriately quarantined and not put in jail directly.
The court directed the inspector general prisons of all the prisons in Pakistan, including GB, to ensure that no new prisoner was allowed to enter the respective jail, unless he was fully screened and they should ensure that the new entrant did not contain any sign of being affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19).
In case of any hint that he was suffering from such malady, the inspector general of respective prison should ensure that he was properly quarantined and not allowed to be mixed up with other prisoners, as long as the doctor in jail suggest otherwise.
The court said so far as the question about the legality of the orders passed by the Islamabad High Court and the direction issued by the chief justice of Sindh High Court and the subsequent orders passed by the district and sessions judges and magistrates, was concerned, arguments on this aspect of the matter would be heard by this court on the next date of hearing.
In the meanwhile, the court stated that the lawyers, who were interested in assisting the court, besides the amicus curiae, may file their written synopsis and such be done well before the next date of hearing.
The court directed the inspectors general prison, all over Pakistan, to submit their respective reports regarding the population of prisoners in their respective prison and the actual capacity of the prisons and also point out the categories of prisoners who were under trial or convicted and separate list of prisoners, as had been noted in the recommendations of the attorney general for Pakistan and also the vulnerable prisoners, as had been pointed out by the SCBAP president, the women prisoners and elderly prisoners, above the age of 60 years before the next date of hearing.
The KP advocate general, said no prisoner had been released on account of coronavirus (COVID-19) from the provincial prisons and similar statement was also made by the Balochistan advocate general. The inspector general prisons, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), who was accompanied with the inspector general of police, GB, also made a similar statement that no prisoner from prisons had so far been released on account of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Sindh advocate general said 519 prisoners had been released from the prisons and such orders of release were passed by a judicial magistrate along with the list of prisoners and as stated by the learned advocate general, the order of the release was authorized by the chief justice of Sindh High Court, in his instructions.
The advocate general said he was going to provide a complete list of all the 519 prisoners, their names, their prisons, whether they were under trial or convicted prisoners, detail of cases they were facing/faced before the court(s), section(s) of law under which the offences for which they were being tried or convicted with short summary of facts of each case.
The orders of the magistrate with a list of prisons, the direction issued by the chief justice of Sindh High Court and any other order passed by any of the district and sessions judge/additional district and sessions judge may also be filed by the advocate general.
The Punjab advocate general said no prisoner had so far been released from the prisons on account of coronavirus (COVID-19), rather the inspector general prisons had made internal arrangements, where he had ensured that the policy of distancing, as announced by the government, was followed and in this regard shifting of prisoners had been made and some had been put under quarantine, and that the accommodation of the prisoners in Punjab was not so alarming, where the arrangement for securing the health of prisoners could not be maintained.
The advocate general said some policy in this regard may be devised and appropriate order by this court may be passed.
Sheikh Zameer Hussain, the amicus curiae, contended that some mechanism had to be evolved for release of prisoners from jails, who were in dire threat of being infected and a classification and distinction in this regard may be made, and such be laid down by this court. He however, contended that the impugned order of the Islamabad High Court was without jurisdiction and illegal.
The President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan (SCBAP) had submitted a report with the heading what made Pakistani prisoners more vulnerable through the coronavirus in which some statistics had been mentioned.
The most relevant was that there were 114 jails in Pakistan which had the capacity of accommodating 57,742 prisoners but in fact, there were 77,275 prisoners in these Jails. These prisoners who were in jail had been divided into two categories; one, convicted and the other, under trial.
He mentioned that there were 25,246 convicted prisoners, while 48,008 were under trial prisoners, and amongst them, there were 1,184 women prisoners, who also had their children in jail, and there were 1,500 elderly prisoners above the age of 60 years.
The president of SCBAP had contended that at least the vulnerable prisoners, namely, the women prisoners and elderly prisoners, above the age of 60 years, may be granted benefit of bail, so that they can be saved from being infected from the coronavirus.
Later, hearing of the case was adjourned till April 6.
