Gross negligence: Probe body for disciplinary action

Action related to negligence in cases of four life convicts released on parole

KARACHI: A committee has recommended disciplinary action against five officials of the home department for negligence while dealing with cases of four convicts released on parole without completing their sentences.

Those recommended for disciplinary action include former home secretary Niaz Abbasi, special secretary Muhammad Nawaz Sheikh, additional secretary Abdul Wahab Memon, reclamation and probation director Saleem Raza and an assistant director.

The inquiry was conducted on the directives of the Supreme Court, which, while taking serious notice of the convicts’ release on parole without completing their full sentences, had ordered action against those responsible.



The convicts were identified as Khalid Aziz, Abdul  Rasheed, Junaid Ansari - later arrested on April 9 this year and sent to Karachi central jail to serve out the remaining period of their sentences - and Muhammad Khan.

Three of the released prisoners were awarded life imprisonment by the anti-terrorism courts for kidnapping for ransom and the fourth was also given a life term for murder.

Complying with the court’s directives, the provincial government had constituted a three-member committee to fix responsibility on those involved in releasing the convicts.

The committee found that the members of the home department’s committee, which decides the under-trial prisoners and convicts for release on parole, had faulted in their duty while deciding the cases of the convicts in question. The report, submitted to the SC’s Karachi Registry on Wednesday,

said the inquiry committee had examined Raza’s conduct, adding that despite being posted there for more than a decade, he miserably failed to assist the parole committee in proper examination of the cases.

The report stated that the director also failed to evolve a proper mechanism and, “on the contrary, dealt with the sensitive issue in a casual, rather pathetic way by placing the cases before the committee without proper examination and homework and on a pick and choose basis in a number of cases instead of dealing the deserving cases on merit basis in transparent manner.”

The probe body has recommended strict disciplinary action against Raza, adding that he should not be given a field posting for at least three years. To fill this post, a BS-19 cadre officer may be posted in his stead by suitably amending the recruitment rules for the post, if required.

The committee further recommended disciplinary action be taken under the relevant rules against the official members and chairperson of the parole committee, who had convened the meeting on November 24, 2014, for their ‘callous and predetermined behaviour’, except DSP Shahid Abbas, who had opposed the cases.

The committee also suggested that the parole committee be reconstructed under the chairpersonship of the home secretary. Its members should be the Sindh IG, advocate-general, prosecutor-general, law secretary, prisons IG, superintendents of the relevant jail, relevant SSP, reclamation and probation director and a Citizens Police Liaison Committee representative. It further suggested that the committee revisit the Good Conduct Prisoners Prohibition Release Act, 1926 and Rules, 2001. The committee could also suggest suitable amendments and mechanism for proper examination of cases of release of prisoners on parole.

“The present practice of pick and choose needs to be done away forthwith,” the committee viewed, adding that “every six months the reclamation and probation directorate should submit a list to the home department of all prisoners in jails for consideration of merits for their release or as the case may be.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 11^th, 2016.