Exclusion of NAO convicts from remission: SHC issues notices to Home Secy, IG Prisons

Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday issued notices to Home Secretary and IG Prisons Sindh in a petition pertaining to exclusion of those convicted and sentenced under National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) from special remission granted due to outbreak of Covid-19.

A division bench of the SHC issued the notices to submit the reply after Barrister Muhammad Asad Ashfaq moved the court against the exclusion of those convicted and sentenced under NAO from special remission due to outbreak of Covid19.

The petitioner submitted that IG Prisons has miserably failed to appreciate the law on remissions without providing any justification for excluding those convicted and sentenced under the NAO, 1999. He also stated that the provision of law prohibiting remissions for those convicted for NAB cases had been declared to be unconstitutional by the superior courts.

The petitioner stated that through an order IG Prisons Sindh granted special remissions of sixty (60) days on account of the Covid-19 outbreak in Pakistan to all convicts except for those convicted of "Espionage, Anti-State Activities, Subversion, Terrorism, Karo Kari, NAB and Foreigner Act, 1946".

The petitioner prayed the court to declare the order, excluding those convicted and sentenced under the NAO, 1999 from the grant of special remissions is illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional.

He also requested the court to direct the respondents to issue a Letter/Office Order extending the grant of special remissions of Sixty (60), days (as awarded to convicts of other cases) to those convicted and sentenced under NAO, 1999.