IHC orders regular inspection of quarantine centres

Mon, April 20, 2020

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday ordered the government to provide proper care to people being kept at quarantine centres, particularly those who cannot afford hotel accommodation.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah issued the order on a petition filed by Beenish Khalid, who asserted that her brother, Waqas Khalid, had been shifted to the Haji Camp after his return from Thailand and kept there in deplorable conditions against his will.

The court also directed the deputy commissioner of Islamabad to depute an officer for regular inspection of quarantine centres.

According to the petitioner, those staying at the quarantine centre at state expense are being dealt with as if they had committed some crime.

The petitioner urged the court to order the district administration to release his brother who had been detained against his will at the Haji Camp quarantine centre. She said all the passengers, including her brother, brought from Thailand on April 14 were taken to a hotel after their arrival at Islamabad airport, but later some of them were shifted to the Haji Camp quarantine centre. She described the conditions at the quarantine centre as deplorable.

CJ says those at state mercy cannot be treated less favourably than privileged

Sardar Gohar Zaman, Assistant Commissioner (Saddar), Islamabad Capital Territory, appeared in response to the notices issued on Friday and submitted a copy of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), which have been prescribed to deal with passengers arriving from abroad. He said all the passengers were given the option of staying at a hotel, but the petitioner’s brother preferred to be kept at the Haji Camp quarantine centre on state expense.

According to the SOP, all passengers and crew will be subjected to a minimum of seven-day quarantine period upon arrival in Pakistan. The quarantine can be extended to 14 days based on the result of the passenger’s Covid-19 test, which will be conducted during the initial seven-day quarantine period.

“The transportation to the quarantine location shall be arranged by the concerned authorities. No meet and greet at the airport shall be allowed for passengers arriving by international flights.

Passengers will be responsible for all expenses of their stay if they choose to stay in a hotel/paid facility. Government quarantine centres will be free of cost. They will not be able to switch facilities once their quarantine begins unless deemed necessary by the authorities.

While the government will try its best to accommodate passengers according to their preferences, paid facilities are limited and cannot be guaranteed. The authorities on the ground will have the final say on where passengers are quarantined.”

However, the petitioner argued that the option had not been given to her brother who was forced to be quarantined for seven days in the quarantine centre at the Haji Camp, Islamabad.

She alleged that those quarantined at Haji Camp were being dealt with as if they had committed some crime, while neither the relevant officials were accessible to the family members of the detained passengers nor adequate information was being provided to them.

The assistant commissioner said utmost effort was being made to ensure the welfare and well-being of all the passengers during their stay at the quarantine centres.

Justice Minallah observed, “It is obvious from the above that pursuant to the policy of the federal government, the citizens who return from abroad are kept in quarantine centres for a minimum period of seven days. Those who can afford are given the option to be quarantined in one of the hotels taken over by the state for this purpose while others are sent to the Haji Camp at Islamabad. The less privileged who cannot afford to be detained in an acquired hotel definitely deserve proper care, because they are completely at the mercy of the state. They cannot be treated less favourably than those who are privileged enough to afford their stay at an acquired hotel.

“The detention is not due to any fault on the part of the returning passengers who are already in distress. It is the exceptional circumstances which deprives them of liberty for a minimum period of seven days. It is, therefore, the duty of the state to ensure that conditions in the quarantine centres meet the minimum threshold of the constitutionally guaranteed rights under Articles 9 and 14 of the Constitution. This duty is more onerous towards the less privileged who cannot afford to be detained in the quarantine centres established in the designated hotels.”

“The concerns of the petitioner regarding treating the returning passengers in a manner that stigmatizes the forced detention also does not appear to be misplaced. The challenges are global and not confined to Pakistan. By no stretch of the imagination, the infliction of Covid-19 or its challenges can be treated as a stigma. The threat of outbreak of the virus and its consequences cannot be overstated. The nation states across the globe have taken the challenges seriously that have arisen due to the invisible and deadly virus while those who did not have regretted publicly. But nowhere has the virus or its infliction been treated as a stigma,” the court order read.

The court disposed of the petition with the direction that the government “shall prescribe a transparent mechanism to seek options from each returning passenger regarding the quarantine centres established pursuant to the SOPs. The respondents shall ensure that each passenger is treated in accordance with and the conditions at the quarantine centres meet the minimum threshold of the constitutionally guaranteed rights under Articles 9 and 14 of the Constitution. The state and the functionaries owe a duty of care towards every quarantined passenger, particularly those who cannot afford to stay in the designated hotels. The respondents shall, therefore, ensure that the conditions at the Haji Camp, Islamabad are scrupulously monitored and each quarantined passenger is treated in accordance with the constitutionally guaranteed rights, inter-alia, under Articles 9 and 14 of the Constitution.

“The respondents are directed to develop a mechanism so that family members of the detained passengers have access to information.

“The state and public functionaries, pursuant to the duty they owe to the citizens under the Constitution, are required to disseminate effective information to dispel the impression that stigmatises the carriers or suspected carriers of Covid-19 and measures taken to meet its challenges, e.g. putting returning passengers in quarantine centres for seven days.”

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2020 https://www.dawn.com/news/1550416/ihc-orders-regular-inspection-of-quarantine-centres

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