SC rejects police report in lawyers’ killing case

Karachi
The Supreme Court rejected a report presented by the Karachi police chief on Thursday on progress made in arresting the killers of lawyers slain in the province over the past three years.
The additional inspector general of police had been directed to submit a report about criminal cases disposed of by the police as A Class cases, but his report was only in relation to the murder cases of lawyers assassinated in Karachi in the past, said a three-member bench at a hearing of a suo moto case.
The bench headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali observed that mere submitting reports under Section 173 of CrPC for the disposal of cases for want of evidence did not exempt the police from continuing investigations.
It said hundreds of cases had been disposed of by classifying them as A Class within three or four days.
The apex court directed Additional IGP Mushtaq Mehar to file a detailed report specifically containing the dates of the registration of FIRs and the dates of the submission of summaries for the disposal of A Class cases.
It ordered that such an exercise be completed within a week and the report be submitted. Health facilities
The apex court disposed of suo moto proceedings initiated over the deaths of more than 100 children due to acute malnutrition and diseases in the Tharparkar district after the Sindh health department filed a report on what health facilities were being provided at government-run hospitals there.
Special Health Secretary Riaz Ahmed said he had visited the government-run hospitals in Tharparkar, and submitted a report on the provision of health facilities to citizens over the past six months.
The court inquired the health officer as to why gynecologists and other specialised doctors were not available at the Diplo Taluka hospital. He submitted that the shortage of specialist doctors would be overcome soon.
The court observed that suo moto proceedings were not adversarial proceedings as presumed by the functionaries. It said courts take up complaints to redress redress grievances of citizens.
Earlier, the SC was informed by the health secretary that 161 children -- 65 suffering from pneumonia and 96 afflicted by diarrhea and dysentery, died out of 9,334 children of less than five years during the last three years in the district.
He said 10,018 malnourished children were treated at the hospital in 2013, 20,192 in 2014 and 10,338 children had been treated so far this year.
He said 23,106 children suffering from pneumonia were treated in 2013, 36,289 in 2014 andn 21,328 children of less than five years had been treated in 2015.
The court heard that 24,297 children suffering from diarrhea were attended to in 2013, 41,528 in 2014 and 23,356 in 2015.
The secretary further said 49 out of 785 children suffering from pneumonia, who had visited the out-patient services at the government hospital in Thar in 2013, had died.
Of 2,685 children who were attended to in 2014, 11 had died from pneumonia. This year, five children, out of 1,505 attended to at the OPD, have died.
The secretary said nine children died due to diarrhea and dysentery in 2013, 62 in 2014 and 25 in 2015.
All the mid- and long term measures taken by the health department to address the situation in draught-hit areas had been improved and morbidity and mortality rate had decreased, he said, adding that basic health facilities, including the supply of medicines, were provided in drought-hit areas.