Sindh High Court building. PHOTO: EXPRESS
HYDERABAD:
The recently removed prison superintendent of Hyderabad central jail, Muhammad Aijaz Hyder, challenged his removal in the Sindh High Court on Tuesday, accusing a Rangers official, a retired jailer and a jail hospital doctor of intervening in the prison's affairs.
Hyder accused former jail superintendent Pir Shabbir Jan Sarhindi, Lt Col Yasir of the Qasim Rangers and Dr Pir Manzoor Ali, who heads the prison hospital, of collaborating to interfere unduly in the prison's affairs.
The jail, housing dozens of inmates belonging to banned and militant outfits, is the second largest prison in the province. It has a capacity of around 1,550 inmates but its actual population lies between 2,000 and 2,400 prisoners.
"I complained to the prisons IG in writing that Dr Ali continues to hold his post on an own-pay-scale (OPS) basis and that he doesn't attend the hospital regularly," Hyder told the court, adding that in response, Sarhindi and Yasir warned him to desist from pushing the case against Dr Ali.
"The deputy jail superintendent, Majid Akhtar, conveyed the warning to me on behalf of Yasir days before I was removed," he maintained. Hyder was posted at the jail on January 19, 2015, and he was removed on April 23.
The petitioner, a BPS-19 official, also challenged the appointment of BPS-18 Ziaur Rehman as the acting jail superintendent, adding that it was yet another violation of the Supreme Court's judgment against OPS postings. He pleaded the court to issue a stay order against his removal.
The court asked the respondents, including the chief secretary, home secretary, prisons IG, prisons DIG and the acting jail superintendent to file their replies by April 30.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 29th, 2015.
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