ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court remanded a case of an HIV-positive inmate back to the Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Tuesday with instructions that it first obtain a fresh report from a medical board and then determine whether continued imprisonment is detrimental to his health and poses a threat to other prisoners as well.

Headed by Acting Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, a three-judge bench had taken up a bail application submitted by Saddam Hussain, an accused in a murder case currently lodged at the Chaman prison.

The BHC had dismissed Saddam’s bail plea in May with an observation that the medial board had not stated whether the stay of the accused in prison was life-threatening or not.

When the court learnt during Tuesday’s hearing that the prisoner had tested positive for HIV, Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel suggested his presence in jail could be hazardous for other inmates.

Kamran Murtaza, Saddam Hussain’s lawyer, argued that the jail in Chaman lacked facilities for the treatment of patients like Saddam Hussain.

But the court observed that the previous medical report suggested the accused was suffering from other diseases as well.

Acting Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial said a fresh medical board should be constituted to determine whether the Chaman prison had facilities for the treatment of HIV patients and whether such a patient endangered the health of others or not.

The court remanded the case back to the Balochistan High Court to reconsider the bail plea in the light of a fresh medical report.

Saddam Hussain was wanted in a case lodged with a Levies police station in Killa Abdullah in February for the murder of Waheed Ahmed.

The accused had applied for post-arrest bail, but the BHC dismissed it in April with a directive for the provincial home secretary to set up a medical board for examining Saddam Hussain. After he appeared before a provincial medical board on April 26, it came to light that the accused was suffering from lung diseases.

The high court observed that an ailment by itself did not entitle a prisoner to bail. There must be a strong reason to believe that the accused required a treatment that was not available in the prison.

The BHC explained that a bail plea under Section 497 of the CrPC could be granted on medical grounds only if the court was satisfied that the accused was suffering from a disease that could not be treated in a jail.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2021