E/CN.4/1997/7/Add.2 page 14 His family claimed that he had been denied proper medical treatment and was dying as a result. The Chief Minister of Sindh had issued an order on 6 February 1996 for the patient to be transferred from the Central Jail to Jinnah Hospital. During his visit to the Central Jail on 2 March 1996, the Special Rapporteur requested permission to visit Ghulam Hyder, but he was informed by the superintendent of the prison that he had been transferred to a civil hospital on 1 March. Another prisoner in Karachi Central Jail showed the Special Rapporteur sores on his legs that had become infected, yet his request for medical treatment had been denied. A. Use of fetters 50. Prior to his mission, the Special Rapporteur received numerous reports concerning the use of fetters as a means of restraint and as a means of punishment. The most common fetter used in Pakistan is the bar fetter, although it is reported that cross fetters and link fetters or chains are used also. Bar fetters consist of iron rings locked around the ankles of prisoners; an iron bar is riveted to each of these iron shackles making an inverted "V". These two vertical bars are about 50 cm long and are linked at mid-thigh level by an iron ring which the prisoner must hold or which is connected to a rope or chain around the waist. The rods are of a standard length and, thus, men who are not of average height may suffer when the bars are too long or too short for them, thereby adding to the normal discomfort experienced in wearing bar fetters. The iron bars are about 1.2 cm in diameter and weigh, together with the ankle shackles, around 4 kg. Cross fetters are iron bars about 50 cm in length attached in addition to bar fetters and placed between the iron rings around the ankles keeping the prisoners’ legs permanently apart at the bar’s length. 51. An inheritance from colonial times, the Prisons Act of 1894 and the Prison Rules of Pakistan permit the use of bar fetters and chains as instruments of restraint and punishment under certain circumstances. The Prisons Act of 1894 provides in section 46 that the jail superintendent may punish a prisoner for so-called "prison offences", i.e. acts of wilful disobedience against prison regulations, including assaulting wardens or fellow prisoners, indiscipline or destruction of prison property and attempts to escape. The punishments allowed include the imposition of fetters of such pattern and weight, in such manner and for such period, as may be prescribed by rules made by the provincial government (sect. 46 (7)). Fettering may not be imposed by officers below the rank of superintendent except in case of "urgent necessity". Section 56 states that "whenever the Superintendent considers it necessary for the safe custody of any prisoners that they should be confined to irons, he may, subject to such rules and instructions as may be laid down by the Inspector General with the sanction of the Provincial Government, so confine them". Although the fettering of a prisoner may normally not extend beyond three months, section 57 (2) permits the superintendent to apply to the Inspector General for sanction of more extended fettering of a prisoner if he considers it "necessary, either for the safe custody of the prisoner himself or for any other reason". 52. Chapter 27 of the Prison Rules (Rules 643 to 655) set forth more precise regulations concerning the use of fetters. Pursuant to Rule 643, "the Superintendent may, at his discretion, require all or any prisoners to wear