PHC urged to end Nehal Ansari’s solitary confinement

Lawyer contends that only court can decide what remission a prisoner is entitled to

PESHAWAR: A court has been urged to end the solitary confinement of an Indian national who is currently serving his sentence in the Mardan prison on charges of espionage.

A two-judge bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) comprising Chief justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Syed Afsar Shah, heard the request from Qazi Muhammad Anwar, the lawyer for the Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari.

Anwar argued that Ansari’s continued solitary confinement at the prison violates his rights guaranteed under the constitution and urged the court to treat him as an ordinary prisoner.

“Solitary confinement is a punishment and no prisoner can be subjected to it until such confinement is ordered by the jail authorities in respect of offence committed in the jail,” he argued. “A strange analogy has been introduced that since Ansari is a citizen of the enemy country, India, he must be treated as anti-state and that he is not entitled to any special remission or ordinary remission.”

In his written reply to the PHC, Mardan central prison superintendent stated that ever since Ansari arrived at the jail on August 8, 2017, he has been kept in a solitary confinement cell, segregated from other prisoners in the jail owing to the nature of his crime.

“He has been convicted on the charges of spying and belongs to an enemy country, that is India, which amounts to anti-state activities,” the official added.  “For this reason, he is exempted from the ambit of special remission granted by the federal and provincial governments and the inspector general of prisons.”

Talking about his right of remission in the sentence, the jail superintendent said that under section 21 (F) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, no remission in the sentence is allowed to any person who is convicted and sentenced for any anti-state offence.

“The crimes of the petitioner are severe in nature, due to which he has not been granted any remission on the same analogy.”

The jail official further said that as per section 214-A of the Pakistan Prison Rules allows that a person convicted for espionage or anti-state activities shall not be granted ordinary or special remission until directed by the provincial government.

However, Anwar strongly opposed this argument, contending that it is not for the superintendent of a jail, rather for the court to decide whether a prisoner is entitled to ordinary remission or not. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2018.