Another wasted court day for Naheem and Rehan

Reprieve's Fellow in Pakistan Sultana Noon reports on her last attempt to attend a hearing for Naheem Hussain and Rehan Zaman, who have been in prison for 5 years without trial.

Naheem and Rehan have always expressed frustration about the judicial process in Pakistan and how painfully slow it is – I went to their last hearing on July 9th 2009 and here is my account of the how the day proceeded. It was just one day for me, but for them it happens every time.

I arrived at the Mirpur District Court at about 10:15am for a hearing in Naheem and Rehan’s case. The hearing was originally scheduled to be on July 3rd 2009. It was rescheduled to July 8th and then again to July 9th.

It has been reported in the local media that the country is short of about 4,000MW of electricity. Mirpur district is one of the areas most affected by this shortage even though there is a damn over there that supplies a significant chunk of the country its electricity. As a result, there had been no electricity in Mirpur from 8am and residents were told not to expect it to be back anytime before 5pm.

Needless to say, it was an extremely hot day. The temperature was about 45 degree centigrade complimented with the type of humidity that makes your clothes stick to your skin. Rehan’s father, Muhammed Zaman and his nephew, Nawab Ali had been waiting outside the courtroom for about an hour before I arrived and were anxiously waiting for Naheem and Rehan’s turn.

The court room itself is a small room about 15 feet by 19 feet and it was overcrowded with men who could push their way in while they waited for the hearing they were there for. Waiting in the stuffy court room was a far better option than waiting outside in the heat.

While other hearings proceeded, I went with Nawab Ali to meet with Naheem and Rehan. We walked for about five minutes through narrow, trashed and unpaved alleys to get to the room where Naheem and Rehan were held. The room was part of a run down building and there was a small stream of dirty water flowing right in front of it which we had to dodge.

There were a number of policeman outside this room drinking tea and chatting. They were all curious as to why I was there. I expressed my interest in meeting with Naheem and Rehan and they asked me to wait. After about 15 mins they asked us to return to the court room because they were bringing Naheem and Rehan for the hearing. We went back and stood with Muhammed Zaman.

Then we saw Naheem and Rehan walking towards the court room. They were closely tied to each other through a chain which was attached to a policeman. Naheem tried to contain his smile when he saw me but it was difficult to assess Rehan’s state of mind since his face did not display any emotions.

They were escorted not into the court room but a room on the other side which was the judge’s office. They went in for about a total of five seconds and before I was able to make my way in they turned around and headed back to the room where they were originally brought from. Rehan’s father informed me that the judge informed them that their hearing for schedule to August 5th 2009. The reason being that there had been no electricity and the prosecution lawyers were unable to prepare. The whole exercise seemed so futile.