Pak sisters in Amritsar jail allowed to call up kin

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 27

In the Amritsar jail even after the completion of over 10-year sentence in a drugs case, two sisters from Pakistan will finally be able to get in touch with their families back home over the phone.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has allowed Fatima Bibi and Mumtaz to call up their family for the payment of a fine of Rs 2 lakh each imposed on them. The order comes with a rider: The duo will make the call under the jail staff’s supervision to ensure that they don’t contact any anti-India/terrorist group.

The order by Justice MMS Bedi rings in a new chapter as Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails can send or receive letters, but are not allowed to make calls back home.

“The right of life and liberty as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution may not be applicable to the petitioners, but these are basic human rights, recognised at the international level,” Justice Bedi ruled, while allowing their plea.

An application submitted to the High Court by the sisters was treated as a writ petition, before the Bench was told that they were proceeded against on the basis of a complaint under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at Amritsar custom cases police station.

They sought permission to talk to their family in Pakistan, but the request was resisted. The state’s stand, reflected in a letter placed before the Bench by counsel Varun Issar, was that Pakistani prisoners were not allowed to call up their family on the cell phone/landline, but could communicate through the Pakistan High Commission officials via consular access. They could also write through the Prisons Department. Since some Pakistani prisoners had links with anti-India/terrorist groups, the possibility of misusing the liberty could not be ruled out, the Bench was told.

Justice Bedi asserted that the petitioners were lodged in the jail only for their inability to pay the fine. “The petitioners can be permitted to speak to their family over cell/landline phones under the strict supervision and vigilance of a gazetted officer of the jail concerned… The communication can be permitted… with parallel hearing facility to a responsible officer deputed by the Punjab DGP (Prisons),” he added.