High Court asks government to appoint 29 prison doctors promptly

The High Court has directed the government to appoint doctors to 29 vacant posts at the country’s prisons as soon as possible in order to provide medical care to prisoners.

The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman passed the order on Tuesday while hearing a writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Md JR Khan Robin on February 18 in 2019, seeking necessary directives on the issue, according to media reports.

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Earlier in the day, Shafiqul Islam, legal counsel for the inspector general of prisons, submitted a report to the court, stating that 112 doctors have already been appointed for providing treatment to the prisoners at the 68 prisons in the country, while 29 posts remain unoccupied.

In the overflowing jails of Bangladesh, where every two people have to share facilities meant for one, inmates seldom receive adequate medical attention. The matter is evident from the jail authorities’ own statistics, which show that 29 out of 141 posts of jail physicians are lying vacant while half the posts of nurses and pharmacists remain unoccupied as well.