Probing the Thar crisis: SHC suspends second judicial commission

The bench also directed govt, NGOs to propose nominees for fresh commission.


Our Correspondent December 16, 2014

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday suspended the second judicial commission formed by the provincial government to probe the causes of the high mortality in the drought-hit areas of the province.

Headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar, a division bench directed the government as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to propose their nominees for a judicial commission to be formed by the court to mitigate the situation in the affected Tharparkar district.



On December 6, the Sindh government had formed a new commission, comprising retired judges Ghulam Sarwar Korai and Anand Ram Talreja, to investigate the causes of the Thar crisis and offer recommendations to manage it. However, a group of NGOs, including the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research and the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, along with human rights activist Javed Burki challenged the commission's formation.

The petitioners recalled that they had proposed the formation of a commission for the same purpose when the drought struck the province earlier this year. The SHC bench on April 11 had directed their lawyer, Faisal Siddiqui, and the federal and provincial law officers to suggest the composition and mandate of the commission.

The chief secretary had, however, formed such a commission instead of offering a proposal regarding the same to the court, which had, according to them, been described as an attempt to subvert the judicial order. On April 29, the SHC had suspended the operation of the notification on the inquiry commission's formation and initiated proceedings on the contempt plea against the chief secretary.

Siddiqui claimed that the two judges on December 4 had reserved their verdict on the contempt plea, but the Sindh government issued a statement on December 6 regarding the formation of another so-called commission to look into the Thar tragedy, he said. He argued that the formation of the commission a day after the SHC reserved its order on the issue was "clearly an attempt to subvert and interfere with and prejudice the due course of judicial proceedings in this case."

The court was pleaded to suspend the directives or notifications for the formation of the commission and also restrain the respondents from taking any steps in relation to such directives or notifications till the petition was pending.

On Tuesday, the advocate general, Abdul Fateh Malik, assured the bench on behalf of the Sindh government that unless the court gave its permission or the commission was constituted by the court, the present commission would not function.

The two judges suspended the second judicial commission and directed Malik and Siddiqui to propose names for nomination to the commission by December 23.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2014.

COMMENTS (1)

Parvez | 9 years ago | Reply

When you want to frustrate the truth..... form a commission....then another one......finally all loose interest and the original sin is forgotten.

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