41 commit suicide in Thatta district during April

Anti-PPP coalition termed the rise in suicides a testament to the bad governance of the ruling party of the province

THATTA:

At least 41 people have committed suicide in the poverty-hit coastal belt of Thatta district in a month, a local health official said.

People are just ending their lives to escape the miseries of hunger, poverty, debt and exploitation, said Bughan Rural Health Centre head Dr Farooq Samoon. "In April only, 41 deaths due to suicide were registered in the Bughan Rural Health Centre," he said.

This figure is for a small rural health centre, a detailed report of suicide cases in the whole district or the Sindh's coastal-belt stretching from Karachi to Thatta and onward to Tharparkar till the Indian border could be phenomenal.

Regarding the latest cases, Dr Samoon said that in the early hours of Tuesday, a resident of Ghora Bari Town, Gulam Muhammad Otho consumed poison in an attempt to end his life. He was taken to the rural health centre where he was provided first aid and then rushed to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi. He further said that later in the day a man and three women tried to end their lives by consuming poison in the Qasim Mallah Village of Ghora Bari. Among the four persons, two women, Marvi and Nazi died.

Opposition raises red flag

The anti-PPP coalition in Sindh, Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) has termed the rise in the number of suicides a testament to the bad governance of the ruling party of the province.

GDA Secretary General Sardar Abdul Rahim, in a statement, denounced the inefficiency of the Sindh administration and expressed his profound grief over the rising number of suicide cases in Thatta's coastal areas.

Rahim went on to say that the rising suicides are irrefutable evidence of the inefficiency and corruption of the Sindh administration. "Forty one people committed suicide in a month and the Sindh government did nothing. No official visited the afflicted districts to ask the people why they are ending their lives."

The destitute have been compelled to die rather than bear the burden of the neck-breaking inflation, he said. The former CM of Sindh said people are ending their lives because they have lost hope against hunger, poverty, and unemployment.

Educated youth are unemployed, people lack access to essential healthcare, and suffer from food insecurity, he added. The corruption of PPP government has gobbled up the billions of rupees allocated for the welfare of common people.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2023.