SHC not satisfied with report on Thar children’s deaths

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction over a report on causes of children’s deaths in drought-hit Tharparkar and sought comprehensive reports from health and food secretaries by May 18.

During the hearing of a petition highlighting death of children in Tharparkar, a two-judge SHC bench headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh also sought details from the provincial authorities about appointments of medical officers in the district.

The chief justice came down hard on officials who turned up and also expressed resentment over the absence of the deputy commissioner of Tharparkar.

Additional Advocate General barrister Ghulam Mustafa Mahesar placed the report, prepared by the deputy commissioner, before the bench and assured it that the DC would appear at the next hearing. He pointed out that the Supreme Court was also seized with the issue of children’s deaths in Tharparkar.

The report was prepared in compliance with the SHC’s April 25 order in which the court had expressed displeasure over the state of affairs in Thar with regard to dying children, unfair distribution of wheat and non-availability of water, health and education facilities.

According to the report, about 80 children have died so far this year in Thar because of the absence of reliable transport, early marriages and malnutrition. It said the shortage of doctors in the district was one of the major factors because the provincial government could not fill the posts as the Sindh Public Service Commission had remained dysfunctional after a directive of the apex court.

“Now the commission is in place and it will not take long for the Sindh government to fill these vacancies,” the report said, adding that there was also shortage of ambulances in the district.

IG removal case

Another bench of the SHC extended for five more days its interim order restraining the removal of Sindh police chief A.D. Khowaja.

A division bench, headed by Justice Munib Akhtar, put off the matter to May 16 after the petitioners’ counsel, Faisal Siddiqui, completed his arguments asking the court to allow Mr Khowaja to continue as inspector general of police.

The counsel argued that 13 police chiefs had been posted and subsequently transferred in Sindh within a short span of time by the Pakistan Peoples Party-led provincial government and demanded that this practice be investigated through a commission.

Responding to the comments filed by the provincial government through the advocate general, Mr Siddiqui said the respondent had cited upholding of seniority during the appointment of the police chief, but it had never maintained the same previously.

He argued that the provincial government had tried to replace Mr Khowaja with a grade-21 officer, Sardar Abdul Majeed Dasti, and said that technically Mr Dasti was junior to another similar scale officer, Ghulam Qadir Thebo, who was currently serving as chairman of the Anti-Corruption Establishment.

The counsel maintained that mostly the IGs were posted in the province on the basis of own-pay-scale and not on the basis of their seniority.

Source: Dawn