Central jail: Woman seeks release of ‘elderly’ sons

DIG told to bring record of prisoners released under 2010 presidential order.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed the Central Jail DIG to supply the dates of birth of all prisoners released under a presidential order giving benefit to elderly inmates that was issued in 2010.

Petitioner Shamim Ara had moved the court for the release of her sons Tufail Ahmed and Zaman Ahmed, who are in jail for murder. She submitted that both were over 70 and had completed two-thirds of their sentence, so they qualified for release under the terms of the presidential order.

She said that 19 elderly inmates were released on October 15, 2010, and her sons were also due to be released on that date, but the jail authorities did not do so. She asked the court to order the release her sons.

DIG Mubashar Khan, appearing before the court, submitted that jail officials had had the two men examined by a doctor to ascertain their age as they did not appear to be over 70. The medical exam confirmed their suspicions that the two inmates were not old enough to qualify for release, he said. The two men had obtained identity cards with false information about their age, he said.

Justice Najamul Hasan directed the DIG to bring the record of the prisoners released under the presidential order to the next hearing on February 4, including their date of conviction, date of arrival in jail and date of birth according to their identity cards.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2013.