MITHI: Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, who took suo motu notice of unabated deaths of infants in Thar in April 2017, is arriving in Mithi today (Sunday) to inspect conditions at the Civil Hospital as four more children died of complications from malnutrition and viral infections at the healthcare facility on Saturday.

With the latest deaths, the toll rose to 500 this year so far.

The officials of the district administration and the health department were seen frenetically cleaning the hospital and the town’s streets ahead of the CJP’s visit. They also got the hospital’s walls whitewashed to impress the CJP, who had rejected all the reports submitted to him by the officers of Sindh government on health issues of Thar during hearings of the suo motu notice in Karachi and Islamabad.

The officers concerned who reached Mithi on Saturday to oversee arrangements for the high-profile visit confirmed the arrival of Justice Nisar and directed all hospital staffers to ensure their presence on Sunday.

Meanwhile, parents accompanying their ailing children and other attendants at the hospital repeated their litany of complaints against lack of facilities and indifferent attitude of doctors.

They said that major reason behind their children contracting diseases was lack of healthy food and clean water. The wells in their areas had either dried up and water table had dropped or the water had turned brackish, which they were forced to consume, they said.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2018