Haleem Adil demands resignation of health minister over children’s deaths in Jhirk

Demanding the resignation of the Sindh health minister over poor healthcare facilities in the province, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s parliamentary party leader in the Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, said on Saturday that no rescue operation was made to save the lives of seven children who drowned on Friday in the Indus River in Jhirk.

Shiekh expressed these views while offering condolence to the heirs of the seven children at Goth Daim Lashari. He assured the bereaved families of assistance from the Pakistan Baitul Mal.

“The health situation is the worst in the province and no improvement has been seen in the past 12 years of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s rule in the province,” Sheikh said. “The situation is unacceptable and the Sindh health minister should resign immediately.”

The PTI leader was of the view that the health minister made tall claims on the floor of the Sindh Assembly but the condition of the healthcare system in the province was very poor.

He said the children were shifted to hospital in a cargo vehicle of fishermen. “There was no doctor present in the hospital and a dispenser was performing the doctor's duty. Some of the children were alive and had the doctor been present, their lives could have saved.”

The rural health centre in Jhirk did not provide ambulances because of non-availability of fuel, and the dead children were brought back in the same fish-loading vehicle, Sheikh lamented.

He said 13 hospitals of the district had been handed over to an NGO and millions of rupees were given to it. He also decried government hospitals having no medicines. The PTI leader explained that his party was not against the 18th amendment, but in Sindh everything had been damaged in the name of the amendment.