HYDERABAD, April 4 Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was informed on Sunday about the appalling condition in the central prison.

Office-bearers of the Hyderabad chapter of Sindh High Court Bar Association and Hyderabad District Bar Association met the chief justice and raised issues relating to early disposal of appeals, regular cases in the Sindh High Court's Hyderabad circuit bench and condition of prisoners of the Hyderabad central jail.

The 45-minute meeting in local circuit house was attended by general secretary of the SHCBA's Zahoor A. Baloch, treasurer Waseem Shah, HDBA president Noorul Haq Qureshi, senior lawyer Abdul Sattar Kazi, HDBA general secretary Ayaz Tunio, Aurangzeb Talpur and members of the managing committees of the two bar associations.

Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, Justice Ghulam Rabbani, Sindh High Court Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmani, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and sessions judge Hyderabad Abdul Rasool Memon were also present.

According to Mr Baloch and Mr Qureshi, they were assured that another judge would be sent to the Hyderabad circuit bench for early disposal of regular cases, especially criminal appeals.

Mr Qureshi said that he had pointed out to the CJP that one more division bench was needed to hear regular criminal cases.

He said that previously constitutional and criminal cases were heard separately. There were appeals pending for a decade, he said.

Lawyers referred to the issue of the central prison where use of mobile phones and narcotics is common and the jail administration was ineffective.

They said that prisoners often refused to attend hearings, which delayed trials and the jail administration did not take any action.

“The jail administration had earlier started lodging cases for their refusal to leave barracks for appearing in courts and the situation improved, but now the jail authorities are least concerned about it ,” Mr Qureshi said.

Mr Baloch said there was need for quick disposal of criminal appeals. “I told the CJP that prisoners had free access to the administration block of the prison and they misbehaved with administration officials and their counsel,” Mr Baloch said.

The HDBA president said that by virtue of his post he had to visit the jails in Hyderabad district. He said he had observed that jail and barracks remain open and prisoners refused to be counted. Either the administration was in league with prisoners or the former was helpless.

Mr Baloch invited the CJP to the oath-taking ceremony of the newly-elected body of the Hyderabad chapter of the SHCBA and Justice Iftikhar accepted the invitation.

He said that the issue of increase in the number of additional district judges was raised by HDBA secretary Ayaz Tunio and the CJP promised to look into the matter of increasing the number of judges from seven to 10. The office-bearers were told that the matter needed government's approval.

About implementing the National Judicial Policy, the CJP was informed that power cuts were affecting judicial work because sessions court did not have any alternative arrangement for power supply back-up.

Later, Justice Chaudhry left for Bhit Shah to offer fateha at the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai. He returned to the city in the evening to leave for Karachi.

Our Sanghar correspondent adds The chief justice paid a surprise visit to a sub-jail in Tando Adam.

He expressed disappointment over the condition of the jail and admonished jailer Asghar Solangi.

He expressed concern over the condition of those prisoners who were there for minor crimes and called for quick disposal of their cases on merit within three days.

He ordered release of disabled prisoner Khooshi Mohammad Malik and Abdul Latif Makrani, a rag-picker. He expressed dissatisfaction over conditions in the jail, the food given to prisoners and non-availability of drinking water.

He asked the jailer how he himself would feel if put in jail in that condition with 48 degree Celsius temperature. He advised the jail administration to provide facilities to prisoners in accordance with jail manual.