Prison as a soft option

Prisoners currently under trial have been referred to hospitals where they live lives of considerable luxury

Prisons are not designed to be comfortable. They are places of confinement for those convicted of a criminal offence as well as those awaiting trial for alleged criminality. They are supposed to be places of deprivation, where loss of liberty is coupled with loss of privilege. These columns have in the recent past condemned conditions in Karachi jail that allowed prisoners to accumulate hundreds of luxury items, including flat-screen TVs and mobile phones, and now there are reports of yet another abuse of the prison system.

Possibly as many as 40 murderers, rapists and terrorists are living outside the Central Jail, Karachi, in a range of public and private hospitals claiming to be suffering from a range of ailments, most of which appear to lack a formal diagnosis, in violation of the laws of the prison department. Many of them have been there for months and at least one for over a year. Of that 40 and according to a report made available to this newspaper, 16 prisoners currently under trial have been referred to government and private hospitals where they live lives of considerable luxury, effectively turning them into extensions of their private home.

To the surprise of nobody many of these convicted and alleged criminals hail from influential families that pay their hospital expenses and these men come and go as they please. Further, there appears to be an element of collusion on the part of elements of the judiciary that seem content to refer these men for medical investigation or treatment on the flimsiest of grounds. It is difficult for prison authorities to challenge a court decision even if they wanted to, as they may find themselves charged with contempt of court if they do. This makes a mockery of both the judicial and the prison systems and puts a new twist on the culture of impunity that buffers the lives of the elites and most privileged within our unequal society. If judges can be bent to the will of influentials what hope might the common man have for the equitable dispensation of justice? Urgent — and stern — action is the need of the hour.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2017.

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