Pak SC overturns high courts' verdicts on prisoner release due to COVID-19 pandemic

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the verdicts of two high courts ordering the release of under-trial prisoners on bail due to scare of the coronavirus spreading into overcrowded jails and asked the authorities to re-arrest those prisoners who have been set free. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the Sindh High Court (SHC) had ordered last month to release hundreds of such prisoners on bail.

The orders were challenged in the Supreme court where Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed overturned them and ordered authorities to re-arrest some of those prisoners who have been set free. "The 519 under-trial prisoners released by the Sindh High Court should be re-arrested,' the apex court announced.

The Supreme Court also cancelled bails granted to those incarcerated for serious crimes. It also rejected IHC exercising suo muto powers to grant relief to prisoner by saying that such powers were only available with the Supreme Court.

However, the court approved the recommendation by the attorney general to give the relief to vulnerable prisoners who posed no threat to society. It said that relief of bail will be available to those only who were being tried for offenses that carry a punishment of less than three years in jail.

The court also said that the relief of bail shall not extend in cases involving abuse/violent acts against children and women. It would first be extended to persons otherwise suffering from ailments or physical or mental disability. It would also be extended to under-trial prisoners (UTPs) who are 55 years of age or older, and then other male UTPs, provided there is no history of past convictions. The relief would be extended to all women and juvenile UTPs, the court said.

The Chief Justice also remarked during Mondaay's hearing that the court wanted to analyse the federal government's performance to counter the pandemic "No work is being done by the government apart from holding meetings. The Outdoor Patients Departments (OPDs) of all hospitals in Islamabad are closed. What kind of medical emergency has been imposed in the country?' he said. He also ordered that every hospital and clinic should remain open and questioned why the Ministry of National Health Services wrote a letter to the Supreme Court to close its dispensary.

"Why should the dispensary be closed? Is the pandemic being countered this way?" he said. When the attorney general tried to defend the federal government for measures against the coronavirus outbreak, the Chief Justice replied that the federation "is doing nothing on the ground".

The total number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan crossed 4,000 on Tuesday with more than 500 fresh infections reported, while the death toll reached 54. The deadly COVID-19 has spread rapidly throughout the world, killing 75,945 people and infecting over 1.3 million across over 180 countries and territories, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)