Haleem moved to JPMC

Opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh was shifted on Monday to the orthopaedic ward at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) from the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), where he was moved from jail on Sunday night.

The development followed fresh allegations against jail authorities, whom Muhammad Ali Baloch, the spokesperson of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader, had earlier accused of letting “60 to 70 miscreants of the Lyari gang war attack Haleem.”

Jail authorities later refuted the allegations.

‘Attacked and tortured’

According to the spokesperson, “Haleem was tortured in jail, which left his bones fractured.”

He said the head of the orthopaedic ward at JPMC has issued a letter for shifting Haleem to the facility from the NICVD.

Haleem - who was arrested by Sindh Police over charges of interfering in the election process in Malir’s PS-88 by-election - was shifted to the NICVD after he wrote a letter to the Sindh government, stating that he suffered from angina and hypertension and doctors had advised him to undergo angioplasty.

Jail authorities said the opposition leader had complained of chest pain, following which he was shifted to the NICVD around 8 pm on Sunday.

As he was taken to JPMC the next day, Haleem reiterated the allegations of being attacked by Lyari gang war members and claimed that he was kept with Dai’sh militants.

Alleging that other PTI leaders, including Sameer Shaikh, and his supporters had also been detained, he dubbed the move “an act of revenge.”

Separately, Haleem’s children, Ayesha Haleem Sheikh, and Ahsan Adil Sheikh issued a statement, wherein they claimed: “the hooligans of the PPP (Pakistan Peoples Party) had tried to kill our father in jail.”

Ayesha said if anything was to happen to her father, the Sindh government and PPP should be held responsible.

Rebuttal

Refuting these allegations of attack and torture on Haleem in jail, senior jail superintendent Muhammad Hassan Sahito said, “Haleem wasn’t even slapped or touched in jail, let alone beaten.”

He said the opposition leader was shifted to jail with six other accused on the directives of an anti-terrorism court judge and when the other inmates began shouting slogans on his arrival, higher authorities were immediately informed.

“Since Haleem is a lawmaker and opposition leader in the provincial assembly, he, accompanied by two jail officials, was being taken to a B-class jail,” Sahito said.

The senior jail superintendent added that some prisoners, who appeared to be the supporters of the PTI’s rival parties, began shouting slogans when Haleem neared the waiting area.

“Haleem was then promptly taken back to Mari Gate, from where he was brought,” he said. “He was kept away from other prisoners in a separate cell in the security ward and the rest of the inmates were confined to locked cells.”

A report on the matter has been sent to the Karachi Prisons and Services and the Sindh IGP, he said.

CCTV footage

Jail authorities also released the CCTV footage of Haleem’s arrival at the prison.

In the footage, Haleem, accompanied by jail officials, is seen entering the prison via Mari Gate at 3.45 pm and inmates are shouting slogans when he nears the waiting area. Thereafter, Haleem and the official accompanying him run back towards the gate, where the officials formed a circle around the PTI leader as a preemptive security measure.

When Haleem was shifted to JPMC on Monday, he maintained while referring to the video that it showed just a part of what had happened in jail and demanded that a video of him being tortured be released.

“They [jail authorities] should also release the video of me getting attacked,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2021.