Landhi jail superintendent suspended over provision of 'C' class facilities to Shahrukh

KARACHI: Taking strong exception to provision of ‘C’ class facilities to death row convict Shahrukh Jatoi at Landhi jail, Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar on Saturday ordered suspension of the jail superintendent. 

The chief justice visited different barracks of the Landhi jail and expressed annoyance when he saw Shahrukh Jatoi being provided ‘C’ class facilities instead of being kept in a death cell.

He asked the jail superintendent as to how he provided such facilities to the death row prisoner. “Where this man should be,” CJP asked while pointing to Shahrukh Jatoi.

Later, he returned to the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry where acting prisons IG appeared before him on his directives.

CJP Nisar asked the IG how the convict awarded death penalty was provided such facilities and directed him to take action against those responsible.

Jatoi, and his friend Siraj Talpur were sentenced to death while his younger brother Sajjad Talpur and their cook Ghulam Murtaza Lashari were awarded life in prison by an anti-terrorism court in the Shahzeb Khan murder case.

Twenty-year-old Shahzeb Khan, son of a DSP, was gunned down on the night of December 24, 2012 in Karachi’s Defence Housing Society.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court set aside the Sindh High Court (SHC) November 28 verdict that paved the way for the release of  Shahrukh Jatoi and others on bail.

On November 28, a SHC appellate bench overturned the sentences awarded to the suspects and sent the case to sessions court for retrial.

On December 23, Shahrukh Jatoi and other accused were released after a local court granted them bail when the father of the deceased filed an affidavit in support of their bail applications.