Inadequate facilities: SHC seeks comments about Civil Hospital, Shikarpur

Petitioner points to recent imambargah attack that killed 73 people, injured 79 others

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday issued notices to the provincial chief secretary, the health secretary and the medical superintendent of Civil Hospital, Shikarpur, to file replies regarding the availability of adequate medical facilities and specialists.

A bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, also issued a notice to the Sindh advocate general (AG) to file the comments by these authorities by the next date of hearing.

These directives came on a petition filed by Advocate Shahab Usto, who went to court against the authorities for failing to provide specialist doctors, surgical equipment and ambulances to the hospital.

Usto told the judges that the deadly attack on the Karbala Maula Imambargah in Shikarpur had killed 73 people and injured 79 others on January 30.

"The initial death toll stood at 50 but heavy casualties occurred due to the lack of ambulances, specialist doctors and proper treatment at the hospital," he claimed. "Had there been adequate facilities, ambulances and specialists available at the hospital, the death toll would have been much lower as the hospital was only five minutes' drive away from the blast site."

The petitioner informed the court that the survivors and the bodies were taken to the hospital on rickshaws, police mobiles, donkey carts and private vehicles. He added that the injured were referred to hospitals in other cities due to poor medical facilities in Shikarpur.

Usto said that the hospital was also facing an acute shortage of general surgeons, specialists and surgical equipment, "which shows gross negligence by the provincial authorities."

He claimed that the required medical facilities in the main hospital of the district were not adequate to cater to the needs of a population of around a million people and pleaded the court to direct the government to address the lack of facilities and specialists.

The bench issued notices to the chief secretary, the health secretary, the medical superintendent of Civil Hospital, Shikarpur, and the Sindh AG to file their comments. The hearing was adjourned for a date to later be notified by the office.