Police to ensure convict suffering from HIV/Aids receives treatment

The convict is losing weight fast - between five to 10kgs so far - but officials are not shifting him to the hospital.


Our Correspondent July 16, 2013
The convict was being regularly treated at Aga Khan University Hospital but prison officials now stopped taking him there. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI:


The Sindh High Court (SHC) ordered the police on Tuesday to make sure that a convict, who is suffering from HIV/Aids receives proper treatment.


Muhammad Asghar, who was caught trying to smuggle 18.8 kilogrammes of heroin to Dubai, was arrested at Karachi airport in December 2011 and sentenced to five months of rigorous imprisonment by the Special Control of Narcotics Substances Court-I in March, 2012.

As the anti-narcotics force appealed to the court to enhance the sentence handed down by the trial court, the defendant contracted the deadly HIV/Aids virus in the prison, his lawyer Yasin Azad told the judges on Tuesday.

The convict was being regularly treated at Aga Khan University Hospital but the prison officials now stopped taking him to the health facility for medical check-ups. The convict is losing weight fast - between five to 10kgs so far - but officials are not shifting him to the hospital for treatment, which may risk his life, the lawyer argued. Azad pleaded the court to direct prison officials get his client properly treated at the hospital as soon as possible.

Headed by Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai, the bench directed that the convict be shifted to hospital with a police squad for medical check-up and treatment of the deadly disease.

The judge directed the authorities to make sure the convict is taken back to prison immediately after treatment. The prison chief will submit a weekly progress report with the high court’s member of inspection team-I.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17th, 2013.

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