Unhealthy air quality

The higher judiciary has once again taken the police to task over ‘faulty’ investigations. During a hearing on February 11 relating to deaths allegedly caused by a toxic gas leak in Keamari, where the Karachi Port is located, the Sindh High Court told police to improve their investigations in the light of all available reports. The court told the area SSP to take action on the deaths when the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency submitted a report in which it described the air quality at the Karachi Port and in nearby areas injurious to health. Since February last year, poisonous gas has allegedly killed more than 14 people in Keamari. The reported gas leak remains a mystery.

The SEPA report contains important home truths like containers of toxic chemicals are being kept at the port for the past several years; unhygienic conditions prevail around the oil terminal; pipe lines are in an unsatisfactory state; the quality of air at the port and in nearby areas is harmful to health; and ships carrying soyabean are docked at the port. The report says no standard operating procedures are being followed during unloading of soyabean and other such goods from ships. This shows the SOPs are being followed more in breach than observance. The authorities need to be seriously focused on this and other crucial issues. The report found the concentration of toxic gases, including carbon monoxide, alarmingly high in the air in the port area.

The court observed palpable negligence on the part of the investigation officer like the case was closed even though it had been categorised as A-class, and the victims’ statements were ignored. Replying to a question by the court, the IO said a post-mortem was performed on only one of the bodies and it was found that the person had died of a drug overdose. No other autopsies were done and the case was shut. The hearing was put off to March 16.