‘Illegal’ confinement: Sindh High Court asks for documents on 41 fake prisoners in jails

Petitioner alleges that innocent people have been jailed in place of criminals.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) asked the lawyer of the Ansar Burney Trust International to submit documents on the presence of 41 innocent people languishing in different prisons in Sindh in lieu of criminals who have allegedly been set free by the authorities.

Justice Munib Akhtar, while heading the bench, passed this direction on Thursday. The trust had taken the prime minister’s principal secretary, the federal and provincial interior and prison authorities to the court over the delicate issue.

Lawyer Shagufta Burney, during a briefing on the law and order situation in Karachi with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said that the National Database and Registration Authority’s verification process of the prisoners found 41 innocent persons, who are suffering the hardships of detention in different jails in the name/in lieu of actual criminals or terrorist elements.

“It is crystal clear that either negligently or willfully, the real culprits have been given a free hand and liberty to prey on innocent people under the leadership of corrupt government officials, who are bent on destroying the peaceful environment of the province,” she contended.

The court was asked to order the authorities to immediately set free and compensate the innocent people. Taking up the matter, the two judges were not convinced by the initial arguments put forward by the trust’s lawyer.

It ordered the petitioner’s lawyer to place the documents of proof on record till December 23.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2013.