HYDERABAD, May 30: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench, on Tuesday sought exact details of payment of compensation for people, who lost their lives because of consuming contaminated water in the city in 2004.

The court also called for details about criminal cases registered against those responsible for the incident.

The bench comprises Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Mrs.Yasmin Abbasey.

On May 18, the court had directed Additional Advocate-General Masood A. Noorani to submit a report on action taken by the government in the matter which was of public importance because several innocent lives were lost during the water crisis in 2004.

The court noted that various reports were available on record but it was not clear how many people had been affected and whether they were compensated and to what extent.

The court asked petitioners and the Additional Advocate-General to provide details about progress on criminal cases registered against those responsible.

Petitioner Advocate Ishaque Qureshi contended that no compensation was paid and an inquiry into the matter was conducted by the then Sindh Irrigation Secretary Ashfaq Memon who, he allaged, had protected officials of his department who were responsible for the situation.

He said that according to a safe estimate as many as 55 people had lost their lives while around 6,000 others were hospitalised in government and private hospitals. He said that irrigation officials had argued that they had released water because there were warnings of cyclone and added that the same exercise was repeated last year when water was again released when the level of Manchar Lake reached 107 RL. He said that it was done to protect the structure of Aral Wah and contaminated water was released into River Indus, which was source of water supply for various districts.

Meanwhile, a single bench of the court on Monday issued notices to accused and their counsels in contaminated water supply case of 2004 for next date of hearing after they did not turn-up.

The accused included former chief engineer Sukkur barrage, Ghulam Nabi Mughal, former EDO health Dr.Agha Tariq and former director-general of Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) Ali Ahmed Lund. Their counsels were not present.

They are on bail granted by sessions court.

WARRANT: The court has issued bailable warrants for former SHO Farooq Qadir Lakhi for his failure to attend the court in Mohammad Umer’s disappearance case.