NICH cleared of all political graffiti, court told

Petitioner had claimed the 500-bed facility was being defaced

KARACHI: The health secretary informed the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday that the building of the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) has been cleared of all political banners and graffiti in compliance with court orders.

On January 17, the court had directed the police to register the complaint of the hospital's management and take action against those trying to deface the health facility. The secretary said this in a compliance report submitted to a division bench, which was hearing a public-interest litigation filed by human rights activist Javed Iqbal Burki.

The petitioner said that some of the 500-bed facility's paramedical staff, most of whom were members of 'medical' wings of political parties, had damaged the facade of the building by putting up huge banners, posters and flags of their respective parties in different wards as well as the entrance and exit of the hospital.

The alleged perpetrators have even carried out wall-chalking in the wards, rooms and boundary walls of the health facility, Burki pointed out. The paramedics are also seen interacting with the patients to promote their respective parties, he added.

The petitioner complained that the hospital's management has tried a number of times to take steps to remove the banners, flags and graffiti but the paramedics always held unlawful gatherings on NICH premises to intimidate and annoy the functionaries. The latter even threatened of violence in case any action was taken against them.

On Tuesday, the SHC bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, took the secretary's report on record and directed the police to register the compliant, whenever filed by the hospital's management, in case the graffiti and banners re-emerge.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2015.