THE rising number of rabies-related deaths in Sindh has raised serious concerns about the standard of governance in the province. In 2019, the government had announced plans for a three-year programme involving the establishment of 64 sanctuaries across Sindh, including around 20 in Karachi, for the control of stray-dog population and rabies. In the same period, the Local Government Department prepared a project and placed it before the Sindh High Court (SHC), which directed the authorities to expedite the approval and implementation of the said programme.
A year later, the government was reported to have finalised a Rs1.07 billion programme to fight rabies and control the population of stray dogs, and in June 2021, the government informed the SHC that the cabinet had approved by-laws for controlling the population of stray dogs and for the provision of vaccination. The government also stated before the court that it had already received cabinet permission to purchase 60 vehicles for the transportation of stray dogs to vaccination centres.
Five years later, people are entitled to ask some questions. Where are the 60 vehicles for which cabinet approval was obtained in 2021? Were they actually purchased? If so, where are they stationed? Which departments and districts received them? What are their registration numbers, chassis numbers and present operational status? How many are functional today, and how many are lying unused or have been disposed of? What happened to the 64 sanctuaries planned in 2019? How many were actually constructed or established? Where are they located? How much money was allocated and spent on each centre? How many are presently functional, and how many dogs have been caught, sterilised, vaccinated and released through them?
What about the Rs1.07 billion prog-ramme announced in 2020? Was the scheme formally approved and imple-mented? How much of the money was released and utilised? What measurable results were achieved? What is the present status of the programme and by-laws that the government had placed before the SHC? Have all municipal authorities imple-mented them? If not, who is responsible for the failure? It is time we made those at the helm of Sindh affairs accountable.
Dr Abdul Qadeer Memon
Naushahro Feroze
Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2026
