‘Illegal’ detention: SHC issues contempt notice to jailers, policeman

Mother of prisoner says her son has completed the sentence but jail authorities demanded Rs200,000 for his release.

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court issued notice to the superintendent and deputy-superintendent of Central Jail Karachi and a police inspector on a contempt application on Saturday.

A division bench, headed by Justice Ghulam Serwar Korai, was hearing the petition of Parveen Akhtar, the mother of a prisoner, who moved the court against jail authorities. She submitted that her son, Abdul Sattar, was convicted in a drug case and sentenced to four years of imprisonment. He had completed the sentence but jail authorities were demanding Rs200,000 for his release and threatening of dire consequences if he fails to pay, she claimed.

Akhtar said that her son was subjected to inhumane treatment and thrown into a punishment ward - a closed ward - when he refused to pay the bribe. She stated that when she approached the court, it appointed its nazir (a court official) to ascertain her contention.



The petitioner further submitted that the court official confirmed that her son was kept in a punishment ward instead of an ordinary ward. Subsequently, the court ordered to send the jailers to closed ward for eight days.

She complained in a contempt of court application that jail authorities have kept her son in a closed ward again and were harassing him by ignoring court orders. She prayed the court to restrain jail authorities and produce the file of her son who completed his sentence two months ago. 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2013.