Why wasn’t Flood Commission Report implemented?

Human Safety Commission seeks punishment for officials who failed to implement it

LAHORE: This week, the Lahore High Court will take up a writ petition requesting action against officials responsible for the non-implementation of the Flood Commission Report, prepared by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah in 2010. The report had carried recommendations to prevent damage from floods. Human Safety Commission of Pakistan Chairman Advocate Pir Muhammad Ali Gilani had filed this petition requesting the LHC to order the government to implement the judicial commission’s report.

The petitioner said this year, once again, the people of Punjab have suffered heavy damage to property, livestock, agriculture and health. According to statistics shared by the Punjab Flood Relief, 17 people in the province have died this year, 533 have been admitted to hospitals, 2,939 have been diagnosed with skin infection, 1,686 are suffering from high fever, 619,534 cattle have been displaced and fields in 2,527 villages have either been destroyed or damaged, he said. The HSCP chairman said that many flood victims had to be evacuated yet the government continued to hold one meeting after the other without showing any tangible result.

Following the 2010 floods in the Punjab, the government had ordered a judicial inquiry headed by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah. The commission’s report had described comprehensively the causes of breaches and had offered cogent recommendations to prevent destruction from flood. However, the Punjab government did not pay heed to the tribunal’s recommendations and put the report away like it did every other judicial report, Gilani said.

The petitioner said action must be taken against government functionaries who did not implement the report’s findings.

The chief minister, chief sectary and other relevant secretaries have been made the respondents. The petitioner has requested the LHC to order criminal proceedings against them under Sections 166,167,283,322,427 and 431 of PPC for disobeying the law with the intent to cause injury to the public, allowing deaths of people and damage to roads, bridges, and rivers.

The petitioner also asked the court to order the government to implement the report in letter and spirit.

Sewerage mess

A two-member bench of the Supreme Court, last week, sought a report from the Water and Sanitation Authority on the Chauburji Sanitation Disposal Station’s operations. The court also sought details of various stay orders issued by Lahore High Court regarding the sanitation system in Lahore. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry issued the order on a suo motu notice taken two years ago against poor sanitation around SC Lahore Registry’s building.

Justice Nisar said rain water often pooled on the road in front of the SC building and asked WASA Managing Director Chaudhry Naseer when the problem would be solved. He said it appeared that the court would have to show Naseer the water pooled on the road on a rainy day.

The WASA MD said they had set up the Chauburji Disposal Station to deal with the problem. He said it would soon be operational after which 50 per cent of the problem would be solved. He said the undulating drainage line was the reason why the problem could not be solved in its entirety. He said several citizens had obtained stay orders from the Lahore High Court against various sanitation projects. He said this was the main hurdle in its operations. The bench then ordered him to file a report on the Chauburji Disposal Station at the next hearing and share the details of 10 stay orders issued by the LHC on this matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2015.