NDMA, others put on notice on plea seeking emergency plan for floods

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Sindh irrigation department and others on a petition seeking an effective emergency plan to deal with heavy rains and floods in the monsoon season.

The petitioners, Mohammad Sheikh and others, had submitted in the petition that Sindh had suffered worst floods in September 2022 and millions of the people of the province were affected due to floods causing loss of billions of dollars due to damage to livestock and crops.

They submitted that weather forecast institutions had predicted heavy rains this time due to extreme hot weather and climate change in the region and it was necessary that the federal and provincial governments were prepared to deal with heavy rains and floods to save the lives and properties of the citizens.

They submitted that the government should take measures for preventing losses in case of heavy rains and an emergency plan should be prepared and implemented in case of floods. The high court was requested to direct the federal and Sindh governments to submit a comprehensive plan for protecting the lives and properties of citizens during heavy rains and floods, and allocate special funds for rehabilitation and rescue operations of the affected people in case of floods.

They also requested the SHC to constitute a judicial commission under a retired judge of the high court to monitor the flood emergency plan and distribution of funds and rehabilitation of the people in affected areas.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Arshad Hussain Khan after a preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to the NDMA, secretary irrigation and others and called their comments.

Missing persons cases

The SHC also recently issued notices to federal and provincial law officers on petitions against enforced disappearances of citizens.

A petitioner, Samina, had submitted that personnel of law enforcement agencies had picked up Mumtaz Ali, her brother-in-law Irfan and employee Shafiq from the Scheme 33 area and their whereabouts were unknown. The petitioner’s counsel later withdrew the complaint with regard to disappearance of Irfan and Shafiq submitting that their family would file a separate petition.

He sought recovery of Ali and details of cases, if any, against him. In another petition, the high court directed police and law enforcement agencies to file comments with regard to illegal detention of Arsalan and Ali Nawaz by the Zaman Town police.

The petitioner submitted that the detainees were called by the police to collect body of their brother Ghulam Mustafa who was killed in a fake encounter after completing legal formalities. He submitted that the detainees went to police officers of Zaman Town who had asked them to sign some blank papers and on their refusal, they detained them and their whereabouts were still unknown. The high court directed the police and other respondents to file comments on the petition on the next hearing.