Dismal health of children irks top court

CJP takes suo motu notice of pneumonia and diarrhoea deaths

ISLAMABAD:

The top judge has taken suo motu notice of the miserable health conditions across the country and directed the authorities to explain the dismal state of affairs in the court.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali took notice on Friday over the reported deaths of thousands of children last year alone because of pneumonia and diarrhoea.



The Supreme Court judge also expressed concern over the spread of Hepatitis C owing to lack of sanitation and other issues, as well as a steep rise in the price of Hepatitis C medicines due to the involvement of influential people.



Jamali while issuing notices to the federal and provincial health secretaries has sought their comments and fixed the case in the third week of December. The chief justice took the initiative on an application of Sheraz Mehmood Qureshi, a resident of Mansehra who had attached two columns of Daily Express with the plea.

One of the columns was authored by Orya Maqbool Jan dated November 13. The writer had mentioned facts and figures of the deaths of children caused by pneumonia and diarrhoea in Pakistan. Blaming apathetic attitude of officials, the columnist stated that in 2014 alone, 144,000 children had died of the diseases.



The second column was authored by Javed Chaudhry and published on November 19. It talked about Hepatitis C and its spread in Pakistan. The writer alleged medicines for the treatment of Hepatitis C were sold on a higher price in Pakistan as some influential people were involved in the business.

The chief justice has converted the columns and Sheraz’s application into a suo motu petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution. He has sought comments from the health secretaries of all four provinces.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th,  2015.