Jail Ward: SHC asks finance department to release funds soon

KARACHI:

Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh have hoped that the Sindh finance department would not “sit on” the money that had been set aside to complete the ward for prisoners at Civil Hospital, Karachi.

On Friday, the Sindh High Court bench was seized with the hearing of a suo motu reference which was later converted into a constitutional petition on setting up the ward which is supposed to treat prisoners facing trial or convicts if they needed hospitalisation.

The prisons section officer with the home department placed on the record a letter, maintaining that the paperwork and plan was being processed and an additional sum of Rs1.75 million would be made available soon.

The additional advocate general of Sindh told the bench that the plan has been approved and the finance department just needs to sign to release the money.

Ten Rangers personnel have been posted for the ward’s security.

The bench disposed of the petition but said that it expected that the money would be sent without any delay, before prices escalate.

The court also wants a final report in four weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2011.