PESHAWAR: Residents have moved the Peshawar High Court’s Green Bench against the “alarming rise in rat infestation and rat bite incidents” in Peshawar’s Warsak Road, Charsadda Road, Bashirabad, Fata Secretariat Colony and adjoining areas.

In the joint petition, lawyers Mohammad Furqan Qazi and Alishba Khan, journalists Lehaz Ali and Shahzada Fahad and residents Ubaidullah and Luqmanuddin insisted that the issue had become a matter of serious public health emergency as well as a continuing public nuisance due to poor sanitation, open drains, broken sewerage lines and garbage dumping.

They complained that authorities had failed to take effective measures to address the issue.

Senior lawyer Saifullah

Muhib Kakakhel appeared on behalf of the petitioners and argued that the spread of rats was not limited to one area.

“Reports have also been received regarding Kamboh and Sarbulandpura union councils whose residents declared rats unusually large and said despite repeated use of medicines and poison, the rats have not been controlled,” he insisted.

The petition refers to national and international media reports that said that hospitals, particularly Lady Reading Hospital, regularly received rat bite victims and that the issue had continued for years without effective control.

The respondents in the petition included the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, health department, local government department, deputy commissioner of Peshawar, WSSP, major hospitals and the Cantonment Board of Peshawar.

The petitioners sought the high court’s orders for immediate fumigation, sanitation drives, removal of garbage, cleaning of sewerage lines and drains and ensuring availability of tetanus injections and emergency treatment for rat bite victims in government hospitals.

They requested the court to urgently take notice of the “serious issue” and direct authorities to protect citizens from a possible health disaster.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2026