Sindh AG’s remarks in apex court about Tharis’ eating habits draw public ire
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MITHI: Rights activists, members of civil society and general public of Thar and other areas took to social media on Thursday to vent anger and frustration over remarks attributed to Sindh advocate general before the Supreme Court, which exposed his sheer ignorance of norms and customs of the desert dwellers.
Social networking sites quoted the advocate general as saying in a hearing of suo motu case about Thar children’s deaths on Thursday that since Hindus who were in a majority in Thar did not eat wheat, the government was giving them rice and lentils as relief items during ongoing relief operation.
He said this in response to a question about distribution of rotten wheat to starving Tharis.
Kirshan Sharma, rights activist, said that for a responsible government functionary to make such a “foolish” statement before chief justice of Pakistan at a time when Tharis were starving to death was simply callous.
“What can Tharis expect from such rulers, who do not even care to know about their norms and customs,” he added.
Advocate Leelaram lambasted the government functionaries responsible for the sorry state of affairs in Thar and warned them to stop making a mockery of the plight of 1.6 million people living in the desert region.
He said that instead of preparing sustainable plans and policies to mitigate peoples’ sufferings and resolve them on a permanent basis, incompetent rulers were portraying a bleak picture of Thar.
Thar Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Asif Jameel said that he was not aware of the AG’s remarks and said the government was only distributing wheat bags among the starving population. He said that they had begun supplying wheat to the remaining 67,905 families registered with Nadra. “The process of wheat distribution is going on smoothly,” he added.
Six more infants die during last 24 hours
Six more infants died of complications from malnutrition and related health issues at Mithi Civil Hospital on Wednesday and Thursday, raising the death toll of children to 496 this year so far, the highest in a year over the past five years of recurring droughts.
Parents of the dead and ailing children complained to journalists of shortage of life-saving drugs at the hospital and indifferent attitude of doctors and paramedics to patients.
They deplored that despite emergency situation free ambulance service was not available to them to shift bodies of their loved ones to their villages and the serious patients to teaching hospitals in Hyderabad and Karachi.
Health and nutrition experts working in Thar including Dr Shaikh Tanweer Ahmed and others reiterated the demand that the government should introduce sustainable policies in drought-hit Thar to prevent further deaths.
Meanwhile, Thar DC Mohammad Asif Jameel said in a press statement that the protesting operators of reverse osmosis plants had called off the protest and resumed duties after the Sindh government assured the private company of payment of dues.
“Purified water from the hundreds of RO plants is provided to residents of Mithi, Islamkot and several villages where the costly plants had been installed,” said the official.
Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2018
