PESHAWAR – The Chief Justice of Pakistan Wednesday expressed displeasure over deplorable state of a psychiatric hospital inside a prison in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s capital city.
Mian Saqib Nisar, who visited Central Jail Peshawar, was irked by overcrowded jail cells and treatment of inmates so much that he summoned the provincial chief minister, Pervez Khattak, who showed up over the top judge’s orders.
During his visit to different parts of the prison, the CJP inquired why the hospital was inside the prison and whether a hospital is supposed to be in such a state.
When the CJP expressed dismay seeing the prison overcrowded with inmates, the IG Prisons informed that they will start shifting the prisoners to the new jail from next month.
The chief justice asked the hospital’s in-charge if patients spent their days lying on beds or there were any activities and arrangements for their outdoor time.
“Where patients are made to sit when they leave their rooms,” he questioned. To this, the hospital administration said benches were arranged for the patients when they came out of their wards.
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When told by KP’s health secretary Abid Majeed that the government was not releasing funds for another psychiatric hospital which has been under construction since 2012, Justice Nisar summoned the chief minister to the prison.
However, in his conversation with reporters, CM Khattak said that he had come to meet the chief justice and was not there for a hearing.
During his previous visit to Peshawar, the chief justice had ordered action against bogus clinics and quacks across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Last month, CJP Nisar visited Punjab Institute of Mental Health (PIMH), in Lahore, over the case of a female death-row prisoner with mental disabilities. The judge heard and saw similar issues of the staff’s negligence and mismanagement.
