Next Chief Justice: SC takes notice of gecko in jail food

DIG Mubashir submitted that they would present the inquiry report to the court within 24 hours

LAHORE: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday instructed jail authorities to explain how a gecko got into food served to women prisoners at Kot Lakhpat Jail and present an inquiry report to the court on Friday (today). The bench headed by Justice Tasadduq Hussain Jilani, who is to succeed Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as the next chief justice of Pakistan on December 12, was taking suo motu action on a press report that some female prisoners had fallen ill after consuming the Wednesday evening meal. Punjab Prisons Inspector General Farooq Nazeer and Prisons Deputy Inspector General Malik Mubashir appeared before the court on short notice on Thursday. DIG Mubashir submitted that they had already started an inquiry into the incident and would present the inquiry report to the court within 24 hours. The DIG said that a gecko appeared to have fallen into a bucket of chicken as the evening meal was being served to the female prisoners at Kot Lakhpat Jail. There were three buckets of chicken and one of them had been tainted. He said that the gecko had been noticed and the bucket discarded. The prisoners had then been served alternative meals, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2013.