SHC takes notice of non-provision of relief goods in drought-hit areas

Karachi
The Chief Justice of Sindh High Court has taken notice of media reports pertaining to not providing relief goods to the drought-affected areas in Tharparkar and issued a notice to Advocate General to submit a reply.
The SHC registrar had placed an official note before Chief Justice Faisal Arab along with media reports regarding non-provision of wheat and other relief goods in drought-affected areas.
Media reports said nearly 55,000 bags of wheat provided by the provincial government were still lying in warehouses and the delay was attributed to the availability of relief commissioner and revenue board member.
The SHC chief justice ordered to convert the media reports into constitutional petitions and directed the provincial authorities concerned to file reports regarding the suspension of official food supply to the families affected by famine in Thar.
They were also directed to file reports by May 4, explaining the wastage of official wheat and suspension of its further supply to affected parts of the deserted region.
It is pertinent to mention that some constitutional petitions had already been filed to the SHC by different non-governmental organisations, seeking court’s directives for the provincial government to mitigate the situation where over 300 deaths reportedly took place due to hunger and lack of basic health facilities.
The petitioners submitted that most areas of Tharparkar district, including Mithi, Chachro, Diplo, Islamkot and Nagarparkar were facing a famine-like situation and over 200 people, most of them being malnourished children, died in its wake.
They said around 175,000 families were reported to have been affected and some of them were forced to leave their homes due to the famine. They stated that the Sindh chief minister had reportedly acknowledged negligence and failure of local administration in the tragedy and said that lives of children could have been saved if doctors, paramedical staff and health department officials had taken the matter seriously and shifted them to hospitals of Hyderabad for timely treatment and proper distribution of wheat bags.

Theft of constitution document
The SHC once against directed the federal law officer, secretaries of law, justice and parliamentary affairs and the National Assembly to file comments on a petition seeking the registration of a case against the theft of original document of the Constitution of 1973.
The direction came on petition by the Raah-e-Raast Trust which cited reports on news websites stating that the original constitution manuscript bearing signatures of all constituent assembly members and the then president had been lost.
The petition, filed through Agha Syed Attaullah Shah, claimed that parliamentary sources had also confirmed that the original document was not available in the records of the National Assembly. He said it was an undeniable fact that during the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s first government, the National Assembly of Pakistan had approved the first constitution of the country on April 10, 1973 , and on April 12, 1973, the National Assembly in its special session held at the State Bank Building in Islamabad had marked the signing ceremony on the new constitutional draft.
After signing the document, members of the National Assembly, headed by Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, then law minister, had gone to the President House in Rawalpindi where Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (President at that time) signed the new constitution.
The petitioner citing parliamentary sources, however, claimed that the authenticated document of the Constitution of 1973 had never been seen in the records of the Parliament House since then. He submitted that the outgoing speaker of National Assembly, Dr Fehmida Mirza, at the time of approval of the 18th Constitutional Amendment had wanted to see the original document of the constitution, but she was told that it was not present in the assembly record.
He said the incident was not an ordinary act of dereliction of duty but “a glaring act of rebellious disloyalty to Pakistan and criminal breach of trust” by all those concerned, who were responsible to preserve and protect the important document.
Shah stated he had requested the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to register a case within a week and initiate investigation to identify the “rebellious criminals” involved in this conspiracy. However, he complained, no action was taken by the FIA and he was forced to approach the court seeking orders for the registration of an FIR. He submitted that since it was a matter of public importance and related to the federation as well as all provinces, therefore the court may take cognizance of the matter whereas notices be issued to federal and provincial law officers for filing their comments.
Citing the interior ministry and the Islamabad IGP as respondents, the plaintiff appealed to the court to declare the original document of the constitution “the most important and authentic document” and any conspiracy to play with its validity, credibility, authenticity and genuineness should be dealt with stern legal action. He also requested the court to direct the respondents to immediately register a case and ensure the recovery of the genuine manuscript on priority basis. It is pertinent to mention that petition had been pending since 2013 and despite several notices to the respondents no comments have yet been filed by the official respondents.