PESHAWAR: The issue of remission to convicts for their pre-sentence period of detention continues to persist in the province despite several judgments of the superior courts in this regard.

Legal experts told Dawn that the affected prisoners had been moving the courts seeking remission announced by the competent authorities for the period when they were under trial.

Recently, Arshad Khan, a prisoner suffering from paralysis andconvicted by a trialcourtfor carrying narcotics, moved the Peshawar High Court seeking remission in sentence as he was given benefit of Section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Under that section, the trialcourt is empowered to order the including of pre-conviction period of detention of a convict in his or her prison sentence.

The prisoner insisted that as he had been given benefit of Section 382-B CrPC and therefore, he was entitled to remission announced by the government during his pre-conviction period of detention.

He was arrested by the local police on Sept 27, 2009, for carrying contraband before being charged under Section 9-C of Control of Narcotics Substance Act.

The prisoner was convicted by an additional district and sessions judge on Dec 18, 2010, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

His appeal was partially accepted by a bench of the high court on Nov 10, 2011, his conviction was set aside and his case was remanded back to the trial court while he was set free on bail being a disabled person. He was again convicted by the trial court on Nov 28, 2012 and was sentenced to life imprisonmentand was taken into custody. He filed an appeal before the high court which was dismissed on Dec 17, 2013. While convicting him, the trial court granted him the benefit of Section 382-B CrPC.

The petitioner claimed that the prison authorities had not been calculating remissions granted during the period when he was undertrial.

His lawyer, Noor Alam Khan, told Dawn that the high court would decide whether the prisoner was entitled to complete remission announced by the government or there were certain conditions attached to it.

He added that during his client`s pre-conviction period of detention, the government had announced that those prisoners who had completed one-third of their sentence they were entitled to one year remission.

The lawyer said his client was entitled to that remission but he had not been given that benefit.

Few days ago, a bench of the high court sought explanation of the provincial government andadministration of Peshawar central prison on the matter.

In Feb this year, a high court bench comprising Justice Mussarat Hilali and Justice Ghazanfar Khan had decided another petition of same nature wherein the court had allowed the pre-trial remission to a convict, Dildar Khan.

The bench had ruled that there was no specific bar in Section 382-B CrPC to deprive a prisoner from remission granted during his under-trial period.

The bench also referred to an earlier judgment of the Supreme Court, stating that in the light of that judgment the appeal of the said prisoner was allowed and pre-conviction remission was allowed to him.

The issue of pre-trial conviction had first surfaced in early 2000s as at that time when the benefit of section 382-B CrPC was extended to a convict by a trial court, the authorities counted his prison term f rom the date ofhis arrestforthe purpose of granting remissions.

However, a high court`s benchin May 2002 had ruled in the case of Akbar Khan Marwat that if the benefit of Section 382-B of the CrPC was given to a convict then the time he had spent in prison before his conviction should be counted in his sentence, but the remissions granted by the competent authorities during that period should not be included in the prison term.

Contrary to that judgment of the PHC, the high courts of other provinces in some cases had ruled that when the benefit of Section 382-B of the CrPC was given to a convict by a trial court, the remissions granted by the competent authorities during the period of his detention before his conviction should also be counted in his sentence.

Subsequently, a bench of the Supreme Court had upheld the said judgment of the PHC.

However, a bench of the Supreme Court reviewed its earlier judgment in 2015 and declared that remission should be granted for the pre-conviction period of detention of a convicted prisoner.