HYDERABAD: The Supreme Court is expected to appoint a judge to head the judicial commission on water and sanitation in Sindh on Tuesday. The one-man commission was headed by the retired SC judge, Justice Amir Hani Muslim, who completed his term and submitted his report to the apex court.

“I am proposing the name of Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro — who had headed the commission before he was replaced by Justice Amir Hani Muslim — when I will appear in the apex court on Jan 28,” said Advocate Shahab Usto, on whose petition the commission was formed.

Mr Usto had filed a public interest petition in 2016 in the SC which eventually led to the formation of the commission.

The SC had passed an order on Jan 14, 2019 after Justice Muslim submitted a detailed report in Jan 2019, mentioning each and every detail of his visits to various water and sanitation installations including photographs and the orders passed thereon by him.

After his report, SC sought names for the appointment of a new chairman and asked Shahab Usto and the Sindh advocate general (AG) to propose the names.

The name is to be proposed in apex court on Tuesday

“I have also consulted the AG, who also gave his consent to the name of Justice Kalhoro, which will be proposed to the bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed,” he said.

In its Dec 19, 2019 order, the SC had agreed to two terms of reference (ToRs) for the commission approved by the Sindh chief minister. The court, however, said that if the scope of work was enlarged, the same would be done after hearing provincial government and the petitioner advocate.

On Dec 17, 2019, the CM approved the ToRs ie “to supervise implementation of recommendations of previous water commission and orders dated Jan 14, 2019 by SC” and “to submit quarterly report to SC”.

The Dec 19 order also said that “in the first instance, we need a report from provincial government and NAB [National Accountability Bureau] with respect to the scope and extent of implementation of the projects that were identified by erstwhile water commissioner. The report shall also include progress about Right Bank Outfall Drain project”.

The Justice Muslim-led commission paid exhaustive visits to the health, drainage and water facilities across Sindh including all public health engineering schemes. A task force headed by the then irrigation secretary Jamal Mustafa Syed was also formed. Sindh government was critical of his appointment for various reasons.

Justice Muslim is now reluctant to head the commission again after having worked there for a year.

According to Advocate Usto, the new water commission head would have to deal with the gigantic task because he would have to see implementation of the recommendations of his predecessor and look into the projects worth billions of rupees. The water and sanitation projects were started in line with the commission’s directives.

Advocate Usto, speaking to Dawn on Saturday, said that Justice Kalhoro would be able to accomplish the task provided that he was spared for it as the judicial commissioner and was not required to deal with his judicial work simultaneously as both were full-time jobs.

“All those important recommendations put forwarded by Justice Muslim can be got implemented only by a sitting judge, who also has clear understanding of the issues. And it’s Justice Kalhoro who has worked initially for the very commission when it was first formed,” he said.

The lawyer was of the view that it was equally important to monitor all the schemes at their implementation stage because billions of rupees from public money was being invested in these schemes, that dealt with clean drinking water in the rural and urban areas.

For instance, he said, there were important projects for rural Sindh to be executed by the public health engineering (PHE) as well as schemes like the treatment plant-I and II for Karachi.

The SC has also shown its concern over a delay in the completion of the Right Bank Outfall Drain-II (RBOD-II) between Sehwan and Gharo creek, which has been pending for two decades. The outgoing commission chairman had visited it as well.

He said millions of people were still consuming contaminated water and unless issues clean drinking water were addressed, the purpose of the commission would not be served. Therefore, he said, a sitting SHC judge would have to work with his full focus on these matters of public importance, he added.

Justice Muslim, in his 184-page report had recommended that “all orders/directives/instructions passed or communicated by the Water Commission from 14th January 2018 to 15th January 2019 may be made rule of the Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan.”

The report said: “Any undertaking/commitment/timeframe given by any Government organization, statutory body, private entity or individual shall remain intact and in case of non-compliance such Government organization, statutory body, private entity or individual will be exposed to the legal consequences”.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2020