Lawyers laud order for UTPs’ release

PBC asks all high courts to follow IHC’s example to avoid virus in crowded jails

ISLAMABAD: Legal fraternity including the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has welcomed the Islamabad High Court (IHC)’s order issued on Friday to release under trial prisoners (UTPs) at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail in view of coronavirus outbreak and has asked all the other high courts to follow suit.

A single IHC bench headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallah a day earlier ordered authorities to release the UTPs who had allegedly committed offences falling within the ambit of the non-prohibitory clause on bail.

The IHC order had said “such release would be subject to furnishing such surety or security as may be deemed appropriate by an officer authorised in this regard by Islamabad deputy commissioner.”

Appreciating the IHC direction, the PBC Vice Chairman Abid Saqi appealed to all high courts to release the UTPs involved in minor crimes. The PBC is the highest elected body of lawyers in the country.

Prime Minister’s Prisoners Reforms Committee (PPAC) Chairman Barrister Syed Ali Zafar also appreciated the IHC’s decision. “In these circumstances, it is perhaps necessary as a human rights issue," Zafar added.

Currently, around 50,000 under trial prisoners are detained in Pakistani jails.

PBC representative Raheel Kamran Sheikh has also written a letter to all bar council members to pass a resolution, urging the federal and provincial governments to grant general clemency for all convicts in specific cases.

The letter said in these times of public health emergency when, amongst other precautions, social distancing and seclusion have been made imperative by the states all over the world to control and curtail the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, prisons in Pakistan, being already overcrowded, are not at all in a position to observe such an imperative.

“There is a clear and present danger, which is not a figment of imagination. A majority of the detained population in Pakistan comprises UTPs, who are entitled to the fundamental rights to life, dignity and fair trial. Law presumes them to be innocent until proven guilty,” he said.

Shaikh said amongst the UTPs, an overwhelming majority is accused of offences other than those attracting maximum punishment of imprisonment for life or death.

“They are incarcerated at least partly for the reason that the law governing the grant of bail in Pakistan continues to be archaic and colonial in its legacy and the same has not been brought by the Parliament in conformity of the fundamental right to fair trial, as embodied in Article 10A of the Constitution, 1973.

“Be that as it may, in order to mitigate such injustice and to save lives of thousands of the UTPs from the serious risks posed by coronavirus pandemic, the federal government as well as provincial governments should be urged by the PBC to release on bail all UTPs, without having to apply for bail, except for a few well delineated classes of accused whose detention is indisputably essential for public safety.

He, however, urged that such release must necessarily be followed by to coronavirus testing “lest those who are carriers of the virus mix up with their families and public instead of being quarantined in the health facilities till such time they recover completely”.