‘Implement Covid-19 SOPs in holding cells’

IHC tells police, admnistration to stop unnecessary parade of UTPs

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Capital Territory administration has been directed to ensure the implementation of precautionary guidelines against the novel coronavirus in the lockups of the city’s police stations and Bakshi Khanas (holding cells) at the district courts to prevent the disease from spreading.

Further, the district administration has been directed to ensure that under trial prisoners (UTPs) are not unnecessarily paraded while shackled and handcuffed.

These directions were issued by a single-member bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), comprising Chief Justice Ather Minallah, as he presided over a petition filed by Raja Abid Hasan on the non-implementation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) against Covid-19 in the court’s Bakshi Khana and police station lockups.

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Issuing a three-pages-long verdict on Sunday, Chief Justice Minallah noted that the applicant had highlighted the plight of suspects who are presented before the courts and the risk they run of contracting the disease due to abysmal conditions of the lockups in police stations and Bakshi Khanas of the district court.

The applicant, the court noted, had contended that suspects are produced before the courts with no regard for precautionary SOPs. This includes being paraded while shackled and handcuffed together, he added.

The court reiterated that all UTPs are presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

“It is the duty of the state, through its representatives, to treat the incarcerated persons in consonance with the constitutionally guaranteed rights,” the verdict read.

CJ Minallah further noted that even if one has been convicted of a crime, they cannot be treated in a degrading manner, terming the facts highlighted by the petitioner as ‘disturbing’.

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The court subsequently instructed Deputy Commissioner (DC) Hamza Shafqaat and SP Farhat Kazmi to meet with the District Judge West on Monday and thrash out a mechanism to ensure that inmates are not unnecessarily paraded.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2020.