KARACHI: Caretaker Law Minister Barrister Omer Soomro on Wednesday said that tribal leaders and public representatives were patronising dacoit gangs in the riverine area of the province.

Speaking at the 8th National Judicial Conference organised by Justice Helpline and Legal Aid & Justice Authority at a local hotel, he said that he had visited a government hospital in Shikarpur which was in a very pathetic condition.

Talking about the Khairpur housemaid murder case, he said that initially the DNA samples of the prime suspect did not match in a case pertaining to murder and rape of a young housemaid in Ranipur as the officials of health department had destroyed the specimen due to the influence of the suspect.

However, he was of the view that the same was matched when the DNA samples were processed at a facility in Punjab.

He said that the caretaker government had limited powers.

Justice Salahuddin Panhwar of the Sindh High Court, senior lawyer Shahab Sarki, founder of Justice Helpline Nadeem Shaikh and others also spoke at the event.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2023