IHC hears ailing death row prisoner's petition for medical treatment

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Saturday heard petition of a death-row prisoner seeking court directives for the government to ensure proper treatment of his poor eyesight, ARY News reported.

Adial Jail officers and doctors appeared in the Islamabad high court (IHC) hearing conducted by Chief Justice Athar Minallah.

A death-row convict, Khadim Hussain had wrote a letter to IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah who converted it into a constitutional petition and sought a reply in this regard from the authorities concerned.

Providing due rights to prisoners is responsibility of the federal government, chief justice remarks, adding that the government forms a medical board where it deems fit.

“If a medical board could be constituted for Nawaz Sharif then why not for other prisoners,” Justice Minallah questioned.

The chief justice said he will visit Adiala Jail on this Friday to look into the issues to the inmates.

There are such prisoners in jails which later acquitted from cases.

Justice Minallah ordered the federal government to submit a report on the prisoners in jails of all provinces.

The IHC ordered the government to extend best medical facilities to jail inmates.

The court also formed a commission headed by Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari, to inquire into human rights violations in jails.

The prisoner in his letter had complained about alleged neglect of the executive authorities, which he said, has added to his suffering by causing further damage to his eyesight. He said he is orphan and doesn’t have financial resources for redressal of his grievance.

It is noteworthy that the Lahore High Court had recently let former premier Nawaz Sharif fly abroad for four weeks for medical treatment without furnishing an indemnity bond as demanded by the federal government.

The two-member bench, headed by Justice Ali Baqir Najafi, ordered the federal government to remove the name of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader from the ECL without setting any conditions.

The bench, which was hearing the plea filed by PML-N seeking unconditional removal of Nawaz Sharif’s name from ECL, also maintained that the former prime minister can initially stay abroad for four weeks, but the duration is extendable on the basis of his medical reports.