KARACHI: The curb on manufacture and sale of gutka and mainpuri in the city is still a far from total as the provincial authorities have been given more time for the umpteenth time by the Sindh High Court to inform it of the measures against the menace.

Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar, who headed a two-judge bench seized with a petition on the issue, expressed extreme dismay over the lethargic attitude of the provincial authorities in responding to the matter and observed that the government departments were “persistent in their practice of not filing any response/comments” as the respondent officials once again failed to file any comments.

Still, the bench showed indulgence and “by way of last chance only” granted the health department, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, district management and deputy inspectors general (DIGs) to file their respective replies and comprehensive reports regarding the “measures, actions and plans they have executed and prepared to curb the preparation and sale of gutka and mainpuri within their respective jurisdictions”.

The public interest litigation was initiated by Rana Faizul Hasan, a civil right campaigner and secretary general of the United Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, who had cited the chief secretary, secretaries of home, commerce and industries, health and law departments, the Pakistan Standard Quality and Control Authority, provincial and city police chiefs and other senior police officials as respondents.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2014