PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has issued a notice to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, seeking its response to a petition against the unavailability of female doctors in public hospitals of Mohmand tribal district to perform postmortem on women.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Sabitullah Khan was hearing a petition filed by lawyer from Mohmand district Raza Khan Safi, who has raised several issues facing residents, including the unavailability of female doctors for carrying out postmortem on the women, who died a unnatural death, as well as dilapidated conditions of several major roads.

Advocate general Shah Faisal Uthmankhel said that the issues raised by the petitioner were of serious nature.

He said that he would be attending a provincial cabinet meeting on Tuesday evening and would discuss these matters there.

The bench directed him to inform the court about developments on these issues in the next hearing.

The petitioner said that the residents of Mohmand district had been facing multiple problems.

He pointed out that as there was no female doctor in major government hospitals in the area,the police had to engage private female doctors for the purpose.

The petitioner added that several incidents of altercations and brawls took place between policemen and relatives of deceased women on the issue, and even an exchange of fire was also reported.

He also complained that major roads in the area were in bad shape.

The petitioner said that work on Ghalanai-Ekka Ghund Road and Ghebi Chowk to Gorsal border area began in 2021 but contractors stopped it due to unavailability of funds.

He added that those roads had been dug up at several points, to the misery of residents.

The petitioner requested the court to ask the government to appoint female doctors to district hospitals at the earliest and release funds for the construction of roads.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2025