Covid-19 vaccination to lawyers, teachers: SHC issues notices to NCOC, health ministry

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday issued notices to the Ministry of Health, National Command and Operation Center and others on a petition seeking direction to the federal government to include lawyers, judicial officers and teachers in the frontline list and provide Covid-19 vaccine to them on priority basis.

Petitioner Omer Ismail Gora submitted in the petition that the frontline workers were considered to be the individuals who leave their houses by risking their personal health to keep the economy in motion. He submitted that it was important to consider that thousands of cases were fixed for hearing in district courts and high court benches where thousands of lawyers appeared regularly for dispensation of justice and the same situation was being faced by the teachers in the government and private schools, who imparted education to students.

Petitioner's Counsel Mamoon Ahmed Khan submitted that approximately 8,000 cases were fixed daily in trial courts and the lawyers, who were appearing before the court, were at major risk of contracting and spreading the deadly virus to themselves, families, litigants and public at large.

He said it is essential for the working class, including lawyers and teachers, to be protected through the Covid-19 vaccination. He requested the court to declare that the lawyers, judicial staff and teachers were frontline workers and direct the government to include them in the frontline list and provide them with Covid-19 vaccination.

The SHC’s division bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, after the preliminary hearing of the petition, issued notices to the NCOC, Ministry of Health and others and called their comments.