CJP questions KP govt's 'tall claims' on healthcare facilities
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Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar on Monday questioned Khyber Pakhtunkhawa government's "tall claims", and asked for a report to be submitted on the condition of medical facilities in the province within two months.
Headed by the chief justice, a bench of the apex court was hearing a case regarding the waste management of hospitals in KP.
During the hearing, the court was told that a total of 63 government hospitals in the province create 4,000 kilogrammes of waste every day, but the province has the capacity to dispose off 3,600kg of waste.
Meanwhile, 158 private hospitals, the court was informed, create 860kg of waste — of which 532kg is disposed off.
"Measures are being taken to create the capacity to dispose off all the waste created by hospitals," said the KP health secretary.
Speaking of his earlier visit to a mental health facility in Peshawar, the chief justice said that the facility was in a poor state and patients at the hospital were treated inhumanely.
"They were locked up like animals, it seemed like people had forgotten these patients were human too," Justice Nisar said. "If you don't believe me, shall we visit these facilities.
"On what basis are such tall claims made? [You] only say that everything has been made great."
The secretary claimed that "there has been an improvement there after the court order".
"The medicines you pointed out are also being provided now," he added.
In April, the chief justice had visited hospitals in KP while on an official visit to the province. At the time, the chief justice had summoned the then chief minister of KP Pervez Khattak to court to discuss the disposal of waste in the province.
"Do you know what is the population of Peshawar [and] how much waste is flowing into its streams?" Justice Nisar had asked Khattak at the time.
Later in August, while hearing a case regarding alleged irregularities in selection of people for managements of the KP teaching hospitals, a three-judge SC bench headed by Justice Nisar expressed its dismay over the way hospitals were being run in the province.
