KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday issued notices to the provincial and prison authorities on a petition challenging the shifting of outlawed Peoples Amn Committee chief Uzair Baloch from prison to a Rangers facility.

Petitioner Samina, wife of Uzair, moved the SHC against a notification, issued in June 2020, to move the alleged Lyari gangster from the central prison of Karachi to the premises of the Mitha Ram Hostel, currently used by the paramilitary force by declaring it a sub-jail.

While citing the secretary of provincial home department and the inspector general of prisons and the superintendent of central prison as respondents, the lawyer for the petitioner contended that no facilities were being provided to the detainee as per the Sindh Prisoners & Correction Rules 2019 at the sub-jail.

He stated that the petitioner’s husband was confined in a narrow room without the facility of an exhaust fan, and other facilities and he was also not allowed to go out of the room for a bath in violation of his fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution.

Better facilities sought for alleged Lyari gangster in sub-jail

The counsel argued that Uzair was not allowed to meet his family members and the petitioner hardly met her husband once in a month and he had also observed ‘hunger strike’ in the sub-jail over lack of facilities he was entitled to under relevant laws.

The petitioner also expressed the apprehension that her husband might be killed at the hands of targeted killers during his way either from sub-jail to court, located inside the central prison, or on returning from the court to the detention facility.

Therefore, the petitioner asked the SHC to set aside impugned notification and sought directive for the respondents to shift her husband back to central prison.

She also sought directives for respondents to provide every necessity of life to the alleged gangster like other prisoners and provision of full security to her husband.

The two-judge bench headed by Justice Naeem Akhtar put the respondents as well as the advocate general of Sindh and the prosecutor general of Sindh on notice for July 13 with direction to file comments before next hearing.

Uzair Baloch, who is facing dozens of cases, including the murder case of his archrival Arshad Pappu, was arrested by Rangers and then handed over to police following his mysterious arrest in January 2016 to face trials in over 50 cases.

He has so far been acquitted in over dozen of criminal cases.

However, a military court had sentenced him to 12 years in prison for his involvement in espionage activities and working for foreign intelligence agencies in 2017.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2023