Islamabad: A Pakistani court has declared that overcrowding in jails is unconstitutional and ruled that a prisoner can sue the government and prison authorities for inhuman treatment during imprisonment, media reports said on Monday.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC), after hearing the petitions filed by Adiala jail inmates, issued directives to the federal government and Islamabad’s commissioner for observance of provisions in jail manual as well as in the international conventions and treaties related to the well-being of inmates, Dawn news reported.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah, in the 38-page verdict, observed that the “intolerable and shockingly inhuman and degrading treatment highlighted in the proceedings in hand meets the threshold of the hypothetical illustration in the above judgement.
“It is, therefore, obvious that the incarcerated prisoners, subjected to the unimaginable degrading and inhuman treatment highlighted in these proceedings, may have become entitled to seek damages against the prison authorities and the state”.
Most of the victims of the deteriorating criminal justice system are those who belong to economically and socially marginalized sections of the society, the Chief Justice said.
A commission constituted by the court to inquire into the prisoners’ miseries disclosed that the overall prison population at the time of filing of the report was around 74,000 while the authorised capacity was 55,634, the report said.
Out of 73,721 prisoners across the country, more than 60 per cent (i.e. 44,847) have not been convicted by any court and a large number of them are suffering from serious illnesses such as HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis and mental diseases, the commission said in the report, adding that jails lack proper medical facilities, doctors and paramedical staff.
It said the toilets lacked sanitation and the prisoners may have to “wait for hours” for their turn because of overcrowding while the privileged managed to exploit the system by getting themselves admitted to a hospital even when not in need. (PTI)
