Judicial inquiry: SHC seeks report on Thar relief efforts

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) asked the district and sessions judges of Tharparkar and Mithi on Friday to send reports about the relief efforts of the provincial government for the the drought-hit people of Thar Desert.

Sindh Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar, who headed the bench, said the reports should be sent by November 25, to see whether the government had rehabilitated the affected persons in compliance of its orders passed from time to time. The bench was hearing two constitutional petitions seeking inquiry into deaths of more than 200 persons, including the women and children, in Tharparkar last year.

Two separate petitions - filed by the Sindh High Court Bar Association Karachi and the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research – had also sought directions for the authorities to provide immediate relief to hundreds of the affected families and punish the officials responsible for it.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2014.