LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed the federal and provincial governments to submit reports on burns units operational in public hospitals of Punjab and standard of the tankers being used to transport oil across the country.

Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah was hearing a petition regarding Ahmadpur East’s incident wherein a tanker carrying oil had exploded and claimed over 200 lives leaving hundreds of others severely injured.

Advocate Safdar Shaheen Pirzada, the petitioner, had asked the court to fix responsibility of all departments concerned who miserably failed to perform their obligations leading to loss of human lives.

During the hearing, a Punjab government’s law officer told the court that the private oil company, Shell, had paid over Rs221 million to the victims as compensation. He said the government also rendered financial assistance to the victims of the incident.

An official of motorway police stated that four personnel had been punished under law for showing negligence in dealing with the incident. He said training was also being imparted to motorway police as to how to deal with a post-road accident situation.

The chief justice adjourned hearing for Feb 7 with a direction to the authorities to apprise the court about the burn units at the hospitals and standard/fitness of the tankers being used to supply gasoline in the country.

Justice Shah also sought a report on powers of the government to grant financial compensation to victims of an incident from public money.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2017