Police do nothing but courts are being blamed: CJ Iftikhar
23 February, 2012
LAHORE: A two-member bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed deep concern over an excessive number of prisoners in jails and summoned the Punjab home secretary for today (Thursday) to explain how to accommodate and provide more facilities to prisoners and reduce their number.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, issued this order after going through a report submitted by the Inspector General (Prisons) wherein he stated that two jails of Lahore — Camp and Kot Lakhpat — had prisoners more than double of their capacity. He pointed out that 3,659 prisoners were detained in the Camp Jail whereas it had the capacity of only 1,050 prisoners. Likewise, there were 3,500 prisoners languishing in the Kot Lakhpat Jail while it could accommodate only 1,000 prisoners. He further stated that 2,306 prisoners were confined to the Punjab jails against whom the challans had not been submitted so far.
On this, the CJP asked IG (Prisons) to explain the number of cases (of non-submission of challans) on yearly basis. But the IG failed to give any answer to the court's query.
The CJP remarked that poor prisoners faced hardships of jails while influential got themselves shifted to hospitals. Prosecutors and police do nothing despite getting handsome salaries. They did not produce evidence and witnesses in courts and ultimately the courts were blamed for the release of accused.
IGP Haji Habibur Rehman, IG (Prisons) and others officials were present in the court. The court also took a strong notice of granting remand by the magisterial courts without applying judicial mind and going through police files. The court directed LHC member Inspection Team (MIT) to seek an explanation from judicial magistrate, Lahore Cantt Courts, for extending unnecessary remand (both physical and judicial) of an accused without any cogent reasons and ask police why the challan had not been submitted.
The court further directed the MIT to convey the court's concern to all judicial magistrates of the Punjab and ask them to refrain from granting remands without applying judicial mind. All these issues surfaced before the apex court during the hearing of a bail petition of an accused because he was in jail for eight months but the challan was not submitted against him. The court had dismissed the bail of Ali Nawaz on Tuesday and summoned officials concerned to find out solutions of other issues.
Online adds: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry remarked that pendency in challan is inefficiency on the part of police and prosecution. The CJP gave these remarks during the course of hearing of Shabnam Riaz murder case at the SC Lahore Registry on Wednesday.
The prosecutor told the court that challan of 230 cases were pending in the Punjab. On one occasion, the CJP remarked prisoners had also some rights but they were being treated like animals. The CJP also inquired from the IG Jails if he had ever shared meal with any prisoner in jail. The court adjourned the hearing till today (Thursday).
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