PESHAWAR: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Wednesday summoned Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to Central Jail of Peshawar after witnessing the abysmal, substandard conditions during a visit to the prison.
Khattak, who showed up at the chief justice’s behest, clarified to the media outside that he had come to meet the CJP, not to attend a hearing.
The CJP was apprised about the psychiatric hospital in the prison by KP Health Secretary Abid Majeed, who stated that the hospital had been under construction since 2012 due to the government’s negligence in providing funds for the project.
In reply to the chief justice’s disgust over overcrowding in the prison, the Prisons IG informed him that the prisoners would be sent to a new jail in June.
He then went to the psychiatric hospital in Peshawar, where he was equally dismayed at the state of affairs in the medical institution.
Justice Nisar inquired whether patients being treated at the hospital spent their days laying on beds or were provided with arrangements to be involved in physical activities outdoors. He was told by the hospital administration that benches were arranged when the patients came out of their wards.
The chief justice’s visit to Peshawar was preceded by one to the psychiatric hospital in Lahore where he heard and saw similar issues of the staff’s negligence and mismanagement.
During his last visit to Peshawar, the CJP had ordered the concerned authorities to take strict action against fraudulent clinics and doctors in KP.
