News Analysis |
The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday, 4th of September, decided to transfer Pakistan Peoples Party leader Sharjeel Memon to a prison in Punjab. Commenting on his earlier visit to Sharjeel’s hospital room, Justice Nisar said it was the first that he saw a sub-jail which was better than most suites in a hotel. “I had visited the jail he was staying in before, I had to check the sub-jail now,” the CJP added. Justice Nisar added that as the provincial government is not cooperating, Sharjeel will be transferred to Punjab and further remarked that judges should not worry as the Constitution grants them “immense power” to enforce judgments.
The event: The Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar paid a surprise visit to a private hospital (Ziauddin Hospital) in Clifton, Karachi, on Saturday, GVS earlier reported. In a shocking development, during the inspection, the CJP found two bottles of liquor in the room of the ex-minister and PPP leader Sharjeel Memon. Surprisingly, Memon’s driver Jan Mohammad told media that the bottles spotted by the CJP did not contain liquor. One of the bottles contained honey while the other contained cooking oil, he claimed.
The sub-jail personnel has been arrested after CCTV footages were obtained from Ziauddin Hospital, a medical facility in Karachi where the PPP leader was shifted from jail for treatment.
Immediate consequence: The incarcerated former minister, his driver and two servants were booked by police under Section 4 (owning or possessing intoxicant) of the Zia-era law, The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order (4 of 1979). The case had been registered at the Boat Basin police station and a three-member team comprising South Zone DIG Javed Alam Odho, South Zone 1 Investigation SSP Abdullah Ahmed and East Zone 1 Investigation SP Shabbir Memon had been formed to investigate the case against the minister and submit the report within a week.
Investigation and the twist: The Alcohol bottles recovered by CJP from Mr. Memon’s “Jail” were sent for testing. A medical report surfaced on Monday, 3rd September. The report said that the tests had found no trace of alcohol in Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Sharjeel Memon’s bloodstream.
Read more: CJP Mian Saqib Nisar visits Karachi
One of the tests had been sent to Ziauddin Hospital while the other had been sent to Agha Khan University Hospital. Ziauddin hospital is owned by Dr. Asim Hussein, the controversial PPP leader and former Minister who had been detained by law enforcement agencies in 2015. On this development, the CJP remarked: “Whether someone consumed alcohol or not, I found the bottles, and some people sealed the bottles which somehow then contained olive oil and honey.”
Sneaking out the evidence: In another shocking and linked development, the assistant superintendent of Central Prison Karachi, who happens to be the complainant in PPP leader Sharjeel Inam Memon’s case, was arrested today (Tuesday, 4th of September) along with five others, including hospital staff and police personnel. According to DIG South Javed Odho, police personnel deployed at the sub-jail in the hospital where Memon was admitted were behaving suspiciously.
Read more: Alcohol in the hospital: Police team formed to probe Sharjeel Memon…
The sub-jail personnel has been arrested after CCTV footages were obtained from Ziauddin Hospital, a medical facility in Karachi where the PPP leader was shifted from jail for treatment. The footages show Memon’s domestic help taking alcohol bottles out of his hospital room after Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar paid a surprise visit to the facility.