Over 200 people freed from shady rehab, SC told

Apex court orders to seize other such fake centres in Sheikhupura and Faisalabad

LAHORE: The country’s top court was informed on Saturday that 215 people were recovered from a shady rehabilitation centre that subjected its inmates to torture apparently to cure them of drug addiction.

“They [patients] were subjected to torture. The patients were told they were receiving ‘Chishti Bailchay’,” said the report submitted before a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar at the Supreme Court Lahore registry.

The report was prepared by an Additional Advocate General Muhammad Shan Gul after visiting the so-called rehabilitation centre, Amir Chishti Clinic, in line the apex court earlier order.

At the earlier proceeding of the suo motu case on Friday, the CJP ordered the arrest Imran Chishti, the administrator of the clinic after he could not explain his position when he was shown a video clip of the torture at the clinic.

The court also ordered the police and Health Care Commission to seal all the centres being run this way throughout Punjab. “These are not rehabilitation centres. These are private detention centres,” Justice Umar Ata Bandial, another member of the bench.

The law officer said an FIR had been lodged against the owner of Amir Chishti Clinic and the police had been conducting raids to arrest the co-accused. The CJP directed the health authorities to also seal Sheikhupura and Faisalabad centres.