Judicial body for action against slacking officials

The judicial commission probing Sindh’s water, sanitation and environmental issues has expressed reservations about the performance of government officials working in water and sewerage schemes.

The commission, headed by Justice (retd) Amir Hani Muslim, observed on Thursday that the performance of the designated government officers was not satisfactory and questioned the Sindh chief secretary as to whether the officers’ cases should be sent to the National Accountability Bureau or contempt of court proceedings be initiated against them.

Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon submitted that he had discussed the matter with the chief minister and such officers will be transferred from their posts. The commission directed the chief secretary to hold a meeting with the planning and development (P&D) board and submit a work plan for starting sewerage treatment plants at Mauripur and SITE areas.

Moreover, the commission also questioned Health Secretary Dr Fazalullah Pechuho as to why there were still no incinerators installed in hospitals, despite the court’s directives. The commission observed that patients were facing hardships in government hospitals due to non-disposal of hospital waste. It expressed dissatisfaction over the health department’s failure to implement the Supreme Court’s directives and directed him to ensure that all incinerators are made functional in February.

The Supreme Court-appointed commission also took exception to the performance of the K-IV project director and lack of progress in making the treatment plants of TP-I and TP-III Karachi functional.

The commission also took notice of the non-installation of water filtration plants in Karachi and directed Chief Secretary Memon to remove incompetent officers and rehabilitate the filtration plants.

Mayor Waseem Akhtar also appeared before the commission and said that the court order on Solid Waste Management Board was not yet implemented. He also submitted his statement before the commission regarding the streamlining of water and sanitation issues in the city.

The commission also took note of non-functional schemes of the public health engineering department and directed its secretary to submit details of schemes and explain why these projects had not been made functional.

It also issued notices to the Karachi Port Trust chairman, Defence Housing Authority chairman and chief executives of cantonment boards to appear before the commission on the next date of hearing along with compliance reports.

Earlier on Wednesday, the judicial commission had directed the chairman of planning and development (P&D) board to submit the work plan for sewerage treatment plants at Mauripur and SITE, and water filtration plants at Gharo, Pipri, NEK, HUB and COD.

Taking exception to Sindh Environmental Protection Agency’s (SEPA) performance, the commission had said that during its visits to SITE, Kotri and Hyderabad, it observed that the necessary efforts regarding industrial effluent disposal have not been made by the SEPA director general, who had informed them that he had imposed penalties and has also referred cases to the provincial environmental tribunal.

The commission directed the SEPA DG to submit a list of industries working without pre-treatment plants in Sindh as well as details on other environment-related infrastructure within two days. The SEPA official was also directed to submit details of the action that has been taken against those who are responsible for industrial and other pollution.

Moreover, the commission had also ordered that landfill sites for Hyderabad, Jamshoro and Thatta be reserved by the relevant authority and deputy commissioners of other districts may also identify sites for reservation of landfills and process their requests through the relevant government body.