Safety concerns: Saulat Mirza, other high-profile prisoners moved to Balochistan

Prison authorities tell SHC about security threats to Karachi jail.


Our Correspondent April 19, 2014
Saulat Mirza was sentenced to death by an ATC in 1999 for killing the then managing director of KESC in DHA. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI:


The prison authorities have informed the Sindh High Court (SHC) that four high-profile prisoners, including Muttahida Qaumi Movement's convicted activist Saulat Ali Mirza, have been shifted to Balochistan.


They have been transferred to the Machh jail under the lawful order of a competent authority and the home department as provided under rule 149 read with 150 of the Pakistan Prison Rules 1978, the Karachi Central Jail superintendent told a court bench during the hearing of a petition against shifting Mirza away from the city.

The superintendent said that there are around 5,200 inmates - most of them being high-profile, hardened and professional criminals - who are at the Karachi prison. Hundreds of them either belonged to banned outfits or are involved in the breakdown of the law and order situation in Karachi.

The jailer told the judges that the jail authorities have received potential threats through various agencies about a possible attack on the jail, which could endanger the lives of the inmates and the innocent citizens living in the vicinity of the prison. Due to the presence of dangerous inmates, armed assaults similar to the ones in Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan jails are anticipated, he added.

He maintained that to thwart any possible terrorist attack and to disperse the high-profile inmates, the Sindh government placed the matter about the transfer of the prisoners before the SHC chief justice, who passed orders for their transfer to other prisons in other parts of the province along with their cases, which shall be heard in their respective courts and decided promptly.

Case history

Farhat Ali Khan, Mirza's brother, had gone to the SHC last month, questioning the rationale behind shifting his brother to another province. The petitioner said his brother, Saulat Ali alias Saulat Mirza, was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in Karachi on May 24, 1999, which found him guilty of murdering the then managing director of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), Malik Shahid Hamid, his driver Ashraf Brohi and guard Khan Akbar on July 5, 1997, in the Defence Housing Authority area of Karachi.

According to him, the SHC and the Supreme Court had earlier dismissed appeals against the death penalty of the convict on January 21, 2000, and September 14, 2001, respectively. Later the Supreme Court also rejected the review appeal on March 9, 2004. Now, the mercy appeal is pending before the president.

He complained that the respondents have shifted Mirza to the Machh jail in the second week of February without obtaining an order of a competent authority or any notification. Ever since the family has been unaware of Mirza's particulars and health, the lawyer said. He pleaded the court order his transfer back to Karachi.

Taking up the superintendent's comments on record, Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh adjourned the hearing till April 24.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20th, 2014.

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