ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned hearing of the suo moto notice case regarding miserable condition of women prisoners in jails till second week of January.
The court also suggestions from all four provincial advocate generals and prosecutors over report submitted by Federal Ombudsmen Salman Farooqui.
The chief justice remarked that the court had to take suo moto notice over failure of administration to improve the conditions of jails.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Faisal Arab heard the case. During the course of proceedings, Federal Ombudsmen Salman Farooqui appeared before the court and submitted report regarding reforms for jails.
The report suggested to form committees comprising of District & Sessions Judges to monitor the jails. The report also suggested that all four provincial ombudsmen should be allowed to monitor the committees.
The Federal Ombudsmen report suggested that new jails should be constructed at district level and separate buildings should be constructed for women and children prisoners in jails.
The report further suggested that drugs addicted prisoners should be kept in separate clinics. The report suggested that Station House Officer (SHO) should be held accountable over misuse of authority in police stations.
The chief justice after reviewing the reports praised the performance of Prison Reform Committee constituted by Federal Ombudsman M. Salman Faruqui and remarked that there were few instructions and people who were working.
The court had fixed the case today to praise the performance of Ombudsmen, he added. Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan remarked that it was duty of administration to monitor the conditioning of jails.
Asma Jahangir also appeared on behalf of the Prison Reform Committee. She said that under trial prisoners have no access to legal aid.
She said that most of prisoners did not even aware of the date when they have to appear before the court.
Asma Jahangir also drew the attention of the Bench to the over-crowding in prisons and appealed that mentally challenged prisoners may be kept in rehabilitation centres rather than normal prisons.
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