Have a grievance?: Submit polio vaccination certificate, PHC tells litigants
Says no case will be filed until petitioner proves children have been vaccinated.
PESHAWAR:
The Peshawar High Court has to be the most inventive superior court in Pakistan.
Earlier, the court had taken it upon itself to inform Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s residents of their legal rights. Now, it has come up with a proposed solution to counter the resurgence of the polio virus in the country, and particularly Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas where 15 new cases have been reported so far this year.
“He who has to file an application or a writ petition or register a case at the PHC should produce a certificate proving that he has administered polio vaccines to his children,” PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan said on Friday, shocking the courtroom which was crammed with people who had come with bail requests and applications for early hearing that are added to the cause list on Fridays.
The chief justice told Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Advocate General Asadullah Chamkani that it was intolerable that polio cases were surfacing rapidly in the province, adding that the court would soon circulate a notification.
“The certificate should be attached to the application being submitted otherwise, no application, writ or case will be considered for hearing in the future,” CJ Khan said, calling upon religious scholars and elite members of society to come forward and work towards ridding the province and Fata of the polio virus.
Health department meeting
Earlier on Friday, officials of the health department, public representatives, members of donor agencies and a number of locals met.
Several proposals were tabled to frame a strategy to wipe out the polio virus.
Akhunzada Chatan, a member of the National Assembly from Bajaur, also attended the meeting and was quoted as saying: “After the fake vaccination campaign was launched in Abbottabad to hunt down Osama bin Laden, people have started disbelieving foreigners. Locals and people from the same area as that where polio vaccines are to be administered should be included in polio vaccination teams.”
He also proposed that women members of the team must also be familiar to residents as tribesmen will not open their doors to unidentified people.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 7th, 2012.
The Peshawar High Court has to be the most inventive superior court in Pakistan.
Earlier, the court had taken it upon itself to inform Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s residents of their legal rights. Now, it has come up with a proposed solution to counter the resurgence of the polio virus in the country, and particularly Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas where 15 new cases have been reported so far this year.
“He who has to file an application or a writ petition or register a case at the PHC should produce a certificate proving that he has administered polio vaccines to his children,” PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan said on Friday, shocking the courtroom which was crammed with people who had come with bail requests and applications for early hearing that are added to the cause list on Fridays.
The chief justice told Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Advocate General Asadullah Chamkani that it was intolerable that polio cases were surfacing rapidly in the province, adding that the court would soon circulate a notification.
“The certificate should be attached to the application being submitted otherwise, no application, writ or case will be considered for hearing in the future,” CJ Khan said, calling upon religious scholars and elite members of society to come forward and work towards ridding the province and Fata of the polio virus.
Health department meeting
Earlier on Friday, officials of the health department, public representatives, members of donor agencies and a number of locals met.
Several proposals were tabled to frame a strategy to wipe out the polio virus.
Akhunzada Chatan, a member of the National Assembly from Bajaur, also attended the meeting and was quoted as saying: “After the fake vaccination campaign was launched in Abbottabad to hunt down Osama bin Laden, people have started disbelieving foreigners. Locals and people from the same area as that where polio vaccines are to be administered should be included in polio vaccination teams.”
He also proposed that women members of the team must also be familiar to residents as tribesmen will not open their doors to unidentified people.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 7th, 2012.