Respite: Court allows Qamar Mansoor to seek private medical treatment

Ruling follows evidence submitted by defendant about his medical condition.

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court on Monday allowed detained Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Qamar Mansoor to avail medical treatment at a private hospital, at his own expense, during his detention period.

Mansoor, a member of the MQM’s Rabita Committee, was taken into custody during the second raid conducted by the Sindh Rangers at the party’s headquarters in four months, on July 17. Subsequently, he was grilled for three months as the paramilitary force presented him before the court after the five-day long Eidul Fitr holidays.

Lawyers representing the MQM leader submitted a plea before an ATC-II judge to consider the suspect’s medical treatment at a private hospital rather than at the jail’s health facility, citing lack of facilities there. The plea, supported by the suspect’s medical records, was forwarded by the party’s legal aid committee and the arguments were put forward by his attorney, Shaukat Hayat.

Hayat maintained that his client suffered from pain in his spinal cord for the past 17 years and his condition worsened during his detention period due to discontinuity in his medical treatment.

Earlier, at the previous hearing, when Mansoor was brought before the judge, he could not walk by himself and had to be helped in by two paramilitary soldiers on either side. He had complained of severe backbone pains and blood in his urine.

The Rangers’ counsel, on the other hand, opposed the medial plea stating that the health facility at the jail was equipped enough to deal with the suspect’s illness.

However, the judge, after listening to arguments from both the sides, ruled that the suspect could seek medical treatment at a private hospital but at his own expense.

At the previous hearing, the judge had also asked the prosecution to produce a medical report of the suspect before the hearing on July 27. However, no such document was submitted.

A law officer of the paramilitary force said that since the suspect was in prison, it was the jail authorities’ responsibility to get his medical report.

Mansoor who, according to the Sindh Rangers’ director-general, was arrested for arranging and facilitating hate speeches aimed at deteriorating the city’s peace, has been confined for 90 days for interrogation over his alleged involvement in targeted killings, kidnappings, extortion and other terrorist acts.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2015.