In agreement: SC’s earlier observations

KARACHI: Hearing human rights applications against the operation of illegal hydrants in the city at the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry on September 8, a two-member bench of the apex court had ordered the relevant authorities to ensure all water hydrants legally operated by the KWSB are immediately shut down and their tenders be issued afresh within five weeks.

The bench - comprising Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Amir Hani Muslim - had also observed that around 90% of DHA residents are forced to buy water through tankers. The chief justice had asked the government officers present at the hearing - the KWSB managing director, Sindh advocate-general and others - as to where these tankers are getting water if there is an acute shortage of the commodity. The officers were unable to offer a plausible reply.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2016.