Rights of prisoners: Chained together and dragged like cattle

An acute dearth of handcuffs, forces city court police to tie up several inmates together

KARACHI: Pakistan has some clear-cut laws regarding the rights of prisoners and the way they should be treated both within and outside of lock-ups. In reality, however, humanely treating them does not seem to be anywhere on the agenda of Pakistani police.

From torture to verbal harassment to custodial deaths, prisoners in Pakistan have to bear it all in violation of the law. And it is not only inside the jails where prison inmates have to go through a tough time but even when they are taken to courts for their trials, they are not spared the harsh treatment.

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Recently, it has been observed that prisoners who are taken to the City Court from different jails in Karachi for their trials are treated like cattle as they are chained together and pulled and dragged in a humiliating fashion because of a lack of handcuffs. The practice also severely hampers their movement and causes excruciating pain in their wrists.

Jail authorities maintain that they are helpless because of an acute dearth of handcuffs owing to which they are compelled to chain several prisoners together. Many of old handcuffs had become unusable and had to be discarded, they said.

Statistics reveal that about 700 to 800 prisoners are brought to the City Court’s lock-up from different jails of Karachi every day. Once prisoners reach the premises of the court, they are taken to their respective courts under the supervision of the lock-up police for the hearing of the cases.

During a survey carried out by The Express Tribune, it was revealed that jail authorities were neither provided with new handcuffs in the last 20 years nor were they provided with funds to procure new ones on their own.

PHOTO: REUTERS

In charge of the City Court lock-up Inspector Mehmood Khan said that the jail was provided with 500 Chinese-made handcuffs about two decades ago.

“Owing to their poor quality, the handcuffs soon became useless after which jail officials and police were compelled to use chains and locks, which we procured on our own, to tie the prisoners together,” he explained. “It is the responsibility of the government to provide jails with strong, good-quality handcuffs so that prisoners don’t have to be tied together in a degrading and painful way.

When approached, prison inmates immediately poured their hearts out and narrated their ordeals, stating that the practice makes them feel like animals.

“These chains are too tight and since several prisoners are tied together with a single one, it becomes very painful when we move,” one of the chained prisoners brought to the court, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told The Express Tribune.

“Besides that, our families also accompany us here to the court for hearings and it becomes extremely humiliating when we are treated this way in front of them,” he said.

Another prisoner said that when onlookers come across the sight of so many people chained together, they naturally paint all the prisoners with the same brush.

“Some prisoners are here for petty crimes committed because of poverty, while others are still under trial. People look at us as if all of us are convicts involved in heinous crimes, therefore, we deserve to be treated this way,” he lamented. “It is not fair at all.”

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Meanwhile, Karachi Bar Association Vice President Abid Feroz termed the use of chains and locks by court police a serious violation of fundamental human rights.

“It is a violation of human rights to chain prisoners and drag them like this. Unfortunately, it is happening all across Pakistan because authorities are negligent of the laws,” Feroz said. “I think the police department and the deputy inspector general (DIG) of prisons should take immediate steps to provide funds to jails so that new handcuffs can be purchased.”

He added that at times, prisoners’ families had to bribe police officers to tie their loved ones with longer chains so that they don’t endure so much pain.

“In keeping with the legal rights of prison inmates and after witnessing the demeaning way in which they are treated regularly, the Karachi Bar Association has taken several steps for visiting prisoners and their relatives,” he said.

“We have installed benches, shelter and clean drinking water for prisoners coming to the court and we took care of all the expenses on our own. As for the issue of handcuffs, we can’t provide them but can forward the complaint to the relevant authorities.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2020.