In the court: SHC questions how rehabilitation centre can detain man

The petitioner said his brothers had declared him a psychiatric patient and got him admitted into the care centre.

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the management of a private rehabilitation centre to explain how it can detain a person without his consent.

Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar raised the question during the hearing of a petition by a person allegedly detained at one such centre in the city, after his relatives declared him a psychiatric patient.

Athar Iqbal Siddiqui had taken his two brothers and the New Horizon Care Centre, located in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, to the high court. According to the petitioner, his brothers had declared him a psychiatric patient and got him admitted into the care centre.

He was kept at the facility for two to three years in inhumane conditions, he claimed. “The management keeps the patients under-fed and occasionally resorts to physical and mental torture,” he said, pleading the court order action against his brothers and the centre for detaining him illegally.

Taking notice of the state of affairs, the bench directed the centre’s lawyer to explain how and in what manner it was allowed to detain the petitioner without his willingness. It also directed the additional advocate general to assist the court with a particular reference to mental health ordinance on November 14.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2013.