LARKANA: A Sindh High Court (SHC) bench of Larkana circuit on Wednesday got frustrated and expressed its dissatisfaction over reports about actual number of staff and their place of posting submitted by the departments of health, education and police.

The division bench, comprising Justices Shamsuddian Abbasi and Amjad Ali Sahito, remarked while hearing a petition that all three departments had filed incomplete reports with evasive details.

The bench observed that it appeared as if they [officers concerned] tried to hide their ghost employees, therefore, they were asked to file fresh detailed reports mentioning the name of every working individual along with the place of posting on the next hearing which comes on Dec 13.

The district education officer (secondary) Larkana during the hearing informed that they had sought out 200 teachers as ghost employees and show-cause notices had been issued to them. The bench also asked the district accounts officer, Larkana, to furnish the details of employees working in the health, police and education departments in the district.

Petitioner Bashir Ahmed Qureshi, a resident of Lahori mohalla Larkana, has filed the petition as pro bono publico which encompassed a host of issues---- traffic mess, battered roads and drainage system, insufficient health facilities in hospitals amidst shortage and ineffective medicines, deficient screening and testing facilities in Chandka Medical College (CMC) Hospital, CMC Children Hospital, Shaikh Zayed Hospital for Women and the matter of encroachment where concerned authorities had failed to implement the Master Plan of Larkana.

The petitioner through his counsel Mumtaz Ali Jessar said millions of rupees were annually allocated by the government, but were not being utilised accordingly for health facilities. He also said a huge number of lady doctors was posted in Shaikh Zayed Hospital for Women, but a large number of among them was not performing their duties properly while most of them remained absent.

Resultantly, the petitioner said, poor patients died due to improper care and non-availability of specialists.

The authorities, he said, had failed to take action against quacks and doctors practicing at their private centers during duty hours. Besides that, private medical centers were constructed on government land while the irrigation and revenue departments kept mum over the encroachment, the petitioner said.

The petitioner said the building control authority had failed to initiate action against the illegal schemes of colonies.

Hearing the petition, the division bench asked the Larkana deputy commissioner (DC) and SSP for removing encroachments from Larkana and Ratodero, ensuring smooth flow of traffic.

The court also asked the Larkana DC to furnish a copy of the master plan for the disposal of sewerage water and beautification of Larkana city on the next hearing.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2022