After water, sanitation, judiciary looks into schools, hospitals

CJ wants district judicial heads to submit reports separately

KARACHI: In his first administrative order after taking oath as the new chief justice (CJ) of the Sindh High Court (SHC), Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh has directed all the district and sessions judges to inspect the availability of basic facilities at public hospitals, schools and prisons in each district across the province.

Judicial sources told The Express Tribune that this is the first administrative order that Justice Sheikh has issued after being sworn in as new head of the provincial judiciary.

They said the CJ had ordered the judicial heads of all the districts to inspect the state of affairs at each government school, hospital and prison. They added that all the district and sessions judges were instructed to check the conditions at the schools, availability of the basic facilities to the students and attendance of the teachers and other staff.



They were also asked to pay random visits to the prisons in the district jails to inspect the living conditions of the prisoners and the provision and quality of the food, medicines and other amenities that they were entitled to in accordance with the jail manual.

Sources said the judges were also tasked with inspecting the public hospitals to see whether or not the patients were extended all the facilities of medical treatment, medicines, presence of the doctors and staff among others.

They were directed to compile their reports separately.



Sources said these directives were verbally communicated to all the district and sessions judges through the SHC registrar's office. They were asked to submit such reports through the registrar's office.

Earlier, the Supreme Court (SC) had ordered the inspection and evaluation of water and sanitation conditions in the province.

A judicial commission constituted on the order of the apex court and headed by a SHC judge had mobilised district and sessions judges to submit reports on water and sanitation conditions.



The judicial commission had recently reported that the provincial authorities had failed to provide clean drinking water, improve worsening sanitation conditions and adopt preventive measures to save the environment from adverse its impact.

The inquiry commission head, who is a sitting judge of the SHC, had paid personal visits to the water sources and water filtration and sewerage treatment plants to inspect the state of water scarcity, its causes and failure of the authorities in providing the basic amenity to the citizens across the province.

During the inquiry, the commission had also ordered all the district and sessions judges to submit details of the development schemes meant to improve water supply and poor sanitation conditions initiated by the PPP-led provincial government in the past five years, their current status, successful execution or failure and its causes.



A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, had last week directed the judicial commission to continue its proceedings by calling regular reports from the district and sessions judges on the status of the water and sanitation schemes.