CJP seeks report on AIDS control

LAHORE: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought detailed reports from the federal and all provincial governments on their AIDS Control Programmes, remarking that HIV/AIDS should be treated as a disease instead of stigma.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar was hearing a suo motu regarding significant increase in the number of AIDS patients in Jalalpur Jattan tehsil.

During the hearing, a former executive district officer of Gujrat told the bench that 53 cases of HIV had been reported in Jalalpur Jattan, among them were 47 women and six children.

He said an official inquiry revealed that two HIV positive expatriates from South Africa had returned to the tehsil after being deported in 1993. The chief justice expressed serious concern over the situation and observed that such patients were all over the country, and the authorities had no statistics.

Punjab Healthcare Commission Chief Operative Officer Dr Ajmal Khan admitted that no authentic data of HIV patients was available with the government. He said unclean blood transfusion was the main cause of transmission of the HIV virus.

An additional attorney general told the court that AIDS Control Programmes were working on the issue at the federal and provincial level while some non-government organisations were also providing their services to HIV patients.

Chief Justice Saqib Nisar observed that it was a national issue and needed to be heard at Islamabad seat with the appearance of federal and all provincial authorities. The chief justice summoned the federal government and all provincial secretaries for health on the next hearing along with all the NGOs working on AIDS control programmes.

Meanwhile, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar got arrested the administrator of a “rehabilitation centre” for addicts and directed the police to lodge a criminal case against him. Earlier, Punjab healthcare commission head, Dr Ajmal Khan, told the top judge that Amir Chishti Clinic had been established in three cities, i.e.Lahore, Sheikhpura and Faisalabad. He said at least 300 alleged addict persons had been kept in a three-room rehabilitation centre of Lahore.

The chief justice was also shown pictures of the centre and a video of the physical torture on the ‘patients’ admitted there. Dr Khan said no qualified doctor was available at these rehabilitation centres. The on the court’s order, the police produced Imran Chishti, the administrator of the centre, who failed to utter anything in his defence.

Chief Justice Nisar directed Advocate General Punjab Imtiaz Rasheed Siddiqui and Additional Advocate General Shan Gull to personally visit the rehabilitation centres and shift all the captives/addicts to Darul Aman.