Torture allegations: Plea filed for Dasti’s medical check-up

Doctors should be from any province other than Punjab: petitioner

ISLAMABAD: A lawyer approached the Supreme Court on Friday, requesting it to issue directives for a thorough medical examination of MNA Jamshed Dasti by a team of doctors from ‘any province other than Punjab’.

Advocate Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta filed a constitutional petition under Article 184 (3), naming the federal and Punjab government as respondents.

The petitioner also requested the apex court to order respondents to produce MNA Dasti before the court and to ensure legal proceedings strictly in accordance with the law.

On June 29, several TV channels highlighted a video clip of MNA Dasti in which he accused police of manhandling him during his detention, besides saying that he was kept without any food for at least six days.



In the video, the teary-faced MNA pleaded for help through the grilled panes of a prison vehicle.

An agitated Dasti claimed that he was severely beaten up by police and rats and scorpions were released into his cell as a means of torturing him.

Describing Dasti as the only public representative in the country who won elections because of the votes of the poor, the petition acknowledged that the legislator was once a poor labourer before he fought elections.

“That apparently Article 4 of the Constitution … is being violated, which needs consideration under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution,” it stated.



The petition stated that Dasti’s video clip had created widespread harassment in the minds of the people at large, adding that the MNA’s claims clearly demonstrated that nobody was safe during police detention.

It stated that it was of greater concern that the statement was recorded when the MNA was leaving the court for jail, amply demonstrating the failure of the judicial system in Punjab.

Last week, Dasti had been arrested minutes before he was scheduled to be released from Multan Central Jail after an Anti-Terrorism Court approved his bail in different cases.