Keeping secrets: Tharparkar court takes notice of medical team’s eviction
A team of medical students from the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences wanted to set up medical camps in all the six tehsils of Tharparkar and to conduct research surveys to find out about the cause of child mortality and other illnesses..
The court has issued notices to the vice-chancellor of the medical university, Dr Noshad A Shaikh, who led a team of 70 doctors and 130 students, the deputy commissioner and the SSP of Tharparkar. The three respondents have been directed to explain the sudden departure of the team, which was scheduled to stay for four days, at a hearing on Monday, December 15.
On Thursday afternoon, the vice-chancellor was asked to call back the teams, which had spread out over six tehsils and to leave Tharparkar by evening. "Some low-ranking policemen came to us and asked us to leave the hospital at the earliest," claimed a doctor who was sent to Nangarparkar's taluka hospital.
According to university sources, Shaikh received a call from an undisclosed Sindh government functionary.
He was also summoned to the CM House, Karachi in the evening. "The vice-chancellor acknowledged [in his press conference in Mithi on Thursday] the fact that malnutrition is killing the children," said a university official, who did not wished to be named. "He [Shaikh] also pointed to a lack of health activities in the district."
The official also believes that the planned survey in the villages to find out about the causes of children's deaths and illness could also have exposed the government's inefficiencies. Another doctor, who also wanted to remain anonymous, complained that they felt insulted at the way they were asked to leave. "Senior professors were checking patients when a policeman of constable rank came and asked us to leave," he said. "It made us feel as if we had crossed the border and entered a neighbouring country."
However, the vice-chancellor could not be contacted for his version. The university spokesperson and deputy registrar Dr Saroop Bhatia expressed his ignorance about the issue.
Thar deaths
Meanwhile, three more children were reported dead in Tharparkar on Friday.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2014.
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