Earlier this week the Supreme Court of Pakistan has shown concern regarding the non-availability of the video linking facility in the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi. The facility was going to help in avoiding the delays in the trials of NAB court in the detention centers.
A three bench committee was formed and headed by Justice Mushir Alam for hearing the petition of secretary Union council Rawat and others.
The notice was issued by the court to Attorney General and advocate generals of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Lahore. In the notice, an explanation was demanded as to why the connection of video link was not yet managed in the detention center of Rawalpindi by the authorities.
While addressing the concern, Mushir Alam said: “Providing video-link facility is not difficult in the age of technology.” Shah Khawar the counsel of the Petitioner informed the committee that no progress has been observed regarding the case of his client. The Additional prosecutor by NAB said that it was happening due to the non-availability of video linking in the Jail. He also said that many case trials have been initiated on the video-link including the trial of the former president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari.
The prosecutor of NAB also informed that the Bureau has written several letters to IG Prison and Federal Government but no response was received by the departments.
On August 27th, 2019 the secretary of Union Council Muhammad Javed Akhtar Chaudhry was arrested by NAB for his involvement in misappropriation of funds of Union Council. After the last hearing, NAB had informed the petitioner that hearings will only be done via the video-linking due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After hearing the plea, the court has directed that proper video rooms must be set up in the detention centers along with proper facilitation like the internet so that miseries of the person behind the bars must be reduced.
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