Bushra Bibi's rights violated in sub-jail: IHC

Says authorities did not take consent of owner of Bani Gala before declaring it a sub-jail

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has noted that by keeping former first last Bushra Bibi confined at a sub-jail and depriving her of interaction with other prisoners, the state not only made her sentence harsher but also transgressed her right to life guaranteed under Article 9 of the Constitution.

“The mere fact that the room where the petitioner [Bushra was] confined in the sub-jail [was] guarded by a prison ward [did] not mean that the petitioner [was] not in isolation,” said a 15-page written order issued by the IHC on Thursday.

On Wednesday, a single-member bench comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb accepted Bushra’s request to transfer her from her husband former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Bani Gala residence to Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.

Bushra, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison on January 31 along with Imran in a gift repository case, was confined to a room at Bani Gala which was declared a sub-jail on the order of Islamabad chief commissioner on the same day, January 31.

Read Bushra moved to Bani Gala ‘sub-jail’ after surrendering voluntarily

Busran later requested the IHC to transfer her to Adiala Jail in view of various concerns.

The IHC said that it has the power and responsibility to intervene and protect the prisoner against inter alia harsher restraints and heavier severities than the sentence carries.

It noted that the sentence of 14-year rigorous imprisonment awarded to Bushra had already been suspended; whereas the seven-year sentence awarded to her in another case was that of simple imprisonment.

“By keeping her in isolation at the sub-jail and depriving her of interaction with other prisoners, the state has not just made the sentence of simple imprisonment harsher and heavier but has also transgressed the petitioner’s right to life guaranteed under Article 9 of the Constitution,” it added.

The court noted that the entire Bani Gala was declared a sub-jail which implied that the said property could not be freely accessed by the petitioner’s children or family members as well as her husband’s children or family members unless specifically permitted by the superintendent or the court.

“In other words, the impugned notification dated 31.01.2024 [of Islamabad commissioner] has had the effect of requisitioning the said property in its entirety. The said property is admittedly in the use of government officials who have been assigned [its] responsibility of internal and external security.”

The IHC said there is nothing on the record to show that the consent of the owner of the property was obtained before the issuance of the January 31 notification.

“In this way, the state deprived the owner of Khan House of his fundamental right enshrined in Article 24 of the Constitution and [remained] under an obligation to adequately compensate him for such deprivation,” it said.