LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday directed the Punjab Textbook Board (PTB) chairman to decide within a month about making fundamental rights of citizens enshrined in the Constitution an essential item of syllabus.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation petition moved by Advocate Sheraz Zaka.

The lawyer pleaded that citizens lacked knowledge of their fundamental rights protected by the Constitution.

He said the new generation should be fully conversant with their rights and articles in the Constitution relating to basic rights should be included in the syllabus.

Also read: Herald Exclusive: Does Pakistan need to rewrite its Constitution?

The court heard the arguments and disposed of the petition with a direction to the board’s chairman to look into the matter and decide it within a month.

Prisons IG: The Lahore High Court on Friday sought personal appearance of the inspector general of prisons on petitions moved by families of six members of a banned outfit on trial for sectarian murders complaining denial of access to their beloved by Kot Lakhpat jail officials.

Muhammad Rafiq and others pleaded in their petitions that jail authorities were not allowing them to see their family members, the suspects, for many weeks.

The petitioners expressed serious apprehension about the life of the suspects and sought an order for jail authorities to allow their meeting with them (suspects).

The suspects include Qari Asif Mahmood, Abdul Rauf Gujjar, Sabir Shah, Hashim Abdullah, Sheikh Farhan, Rafiullah.

They were arrested last year for their involvement in targeted killings of Advocate Shakir Ali Rizvi, Arshad Ali Shah, Dr Syed Ali Haider and his son Murtaza Ali, Khurram Raza Qadri of Sunni Tehreek, Maulana Sahamsur Rehman Muavia of Ahle Sunnat-wal-Jamaat and others.

The court heard the arguments and directed the Prisons IG to appear in person on Monday.

fire safety: The Lahore High Court on Friday sought a report from the Punjab government about fire safety measures being taken at public health facilities in the province in the wake of death of 10 newborn babies during a fire erupted at Services Hospital in 2012.

Hearing a public interest litigation petition moved by Advocate Noshab A. Khan, the court observed that citizens needed good health facility, free education and clean drinking water instead of lush roads.

Earlier, a law officer submitted a report on behalf of the health secretary stating that effective safety measures had been taken at 97 public sector hospitals in the province.

It said modern firefighting equipment was being installed in hospitals besides appointment of safety-officer for each health facility.

The court directed the health secretary to submit a detailed report about fire safety measures being taken at hospitals by May 25.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2015

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