Pakistan ’s Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed Khan expressed his first alert on Friday in the country about the lack of facilities to fight coronavirus.
The chief justice has sent notices to the attorney general, the health secretary and the interior secretary to respond in the matter.
Justice Ahmed asked three respondents to provide detailed work done so far to curb the spread of the virus.
On April 1, the Chief Justice also heard about the release of minor prisoners during the virus outbreak. The Sindh and Islamabad High Courts ordered a petition to release the prisoners.
“Under what law can suspects and accused be released?” the CJP had asked while hearing arguments. He noted that it was already very difficult to arrest the accused in cases.
“The police are already busy with the coronavirus emergency. How can we let criminals be out on the roads as well?” he had asked.
He said that shortly after the prisoners were released, Karachi began a robbery. The Chief Justice ruled that before allowing such things to happen, proper legal procedures must be followed.
The Supreme Court subsequently ordered the arrest of more than 500 prisoners again, who were temporarily released to slow down the spread of coronavirus because it overturned the High Court ’s decision.
However, the exception is for prisoners accused of petty crimes.
