Public toilets: SHC gives KMC two weeks to submit report

Women face a lot of inconvenience because there are no public toilets.

KARACHI:

The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) was given a two-week breather by the Sindh High Court on the deadline to submit complete details on the city’s public toilets.

The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Syed Muhammad Farooq Shah, was hearing a petition filed by an NGO called the Raah-e-Rasst Trust. It maintained that people, especially women, face a lot of inconvenience because there were no public toilets. In case of emergencies they had to use toilets built for men.

The petitioner also said that with respect to the men-to-women ratio in Pakistan, civic agencies, government departments and public hospitals should make adequate arrangements for women. They form nearly half of the population.

The NGO suggests that civil society organisations, businesses and other stakeholders in Karachi can be involved in a project to construct separate toilets for women in public places, such as parks, beaches, hospitals and government offices.

On Thursday, when the petition came up before the court for the umpteenth time, the KMC’s lawyer was unable to give the judges a satisfactory answer to their questions. They did not provide any documents for the record as well.

The bench expressed its displeasure over the conduct of KMC’s legal officers and gave them one last chance to give an explanation. KMC was ordered to submit a detailed report of all toilets across the city within two weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2012.