Equal punishment: Accountability court convicts allowed remission in sentence

NAB argued that remissions only applied to convicts of ordinary courts.

LAHORE:

A Lahore High Court division bench on Wednesday accepted petitions moved by several accountability court convicts.

They were seeking the benefit of presidential remissions for their sentences. The convicts had said that all other convicts had been given relaxations in their prison sentences under presidential or other remissions announced on occasions such as Eid and Independence Day.

They said convicts of accountability courts were not extended the benefit of such remissions.

They said this was discriminatory treatment in violation of fundamental rights. The National Accountability Bureau opposed the petitions and argued that presidential remissions only applied to convicts of ordinary courts of law.

It said the petitioners, who were convicted by accountability courts, fell in the jurisdiction of special law courts.

The bench headed by Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan accepted the petitions and directed the accountability courts and jail authorities to apply presidential remissions on the accountability court’s convicts.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2014.