The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed the provincial Finance Department on Monday to provide Rs 80 billion to the Sindh AIDS Control Programme (SACP) for the prisoners suffering from the disease across the province. The court also directed the department to submit a report on the matter within three weeks. The single bench of Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi issued the orders while hearing a petition filed by Iqbal Kazmi in which he pleaded to the court to ensure implementation of the jail manual. Additional Finance Secretary Muhammad Ubaid Qureshi appeared before the court and expressed his unawareness about the prior court’s directives. He said that he had not received orders from the court regarding provision of funds to the SACP. The judge expressed his annoyance over his statement and said that during the last hearing, the court had issued these directives to the Finance Department, but they were not complied with. The court ordered the respondent to issue the funds that were allocated by the provincial government. The court also ordered the inspector general of prison to appear in person in the next hearing. During the last hearing, the SACP project manager had submitted a report stating that 40 HIV positive prisoners are detained in three prisons of the city including central prison, Malir district prison and women and juvenile prison, but there was no appropriate medical treatment arrangement for them. He also expressed his concern over the fact that the number of sufferers would increase if the negligence attitude of the authorities concerned does not change. Similarly, according to another report submitted by the superintendent of Malir district jail, 23 prisoners including four Indians were found suffering from AIDS. The prison official also admitted that was no proper medical facility for these prionsers.
