Staff Reporter :
A legal notice has been served on the government and the prison authorities on Thursday requesting to inform about the steps taken to protect the inmates from coronavirus infection and to release them as many prison guards and inmates have been infected with the virus.
Advocate Mohammad Shishir Manir, a Supreme Court lawyer, emailed the legal notice to the Secretaries of the Ministries of Law and Home Affairs, and to the Inspector General of Police and Prisons asking them to inform the steps within 72 hours.
The legal notice said that prisoners were the most vulnerable to the COVID-19 outbreak.
‘Our prisons are overcrowded as there are 85,000 prisoners staying against the capacity of 41,244 in our 68 prisons.’
The notice said that it was humanely impossible to maintain social distance amongst the prisoners.
The notice said that the USA, Iran, Turkey, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and some other countries released hundreds of thousands of prisoners considering the COVID-19 outbreak.
Moreover, as per the recommendation of the WHO, the World community took highest precautionary measures for the prison population, it added.
If the respondents fail to comply with the notice, then the notice sender would be compelled to take shelter of writ jurisdiction of the High Court, the notice also read.
