LARKANA: The Lar­ka­na circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Friday ordered the Depart­ment of Agriculture to issue a notification within a week for handing over land to the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplan­tation, which the institute had marked for establishing its hospital.

The constitutional bench comprising Justices Moha­m­­mad Saleem Jessar and Nisar Ahmed Bhan­bhro passed the order on a petition filed by Safdar Ali Ghouri, a senior lawyer, regarding delay in handover of the identified plot to the SIUT.

The court directed the Land Utilization Depart­ment to allot the land to the SIUT within 15 days and submit a compliance report, and added in case the Agriculture Depart­ment required the land in question for research purposes it might approach the government for allotment of an alternative piece of land so as to carry on its research activities.

The petitioner said that the government had allocated Rs4.5 billion in the budget for the construction of a 200-bed SIUT hospital in Larkana.

He submitted that since the government had proposed to establish the SIUT, a suitable piece of land had been identified by the Revenue Depart­ment and a letter to that effect had been sent to the Secretary, Land Utiliza­tion Department, Board of Revenue, which requested that the Agricultural Depart­­ment’s 10-acre piece of plot situated near Police Training Centre on Wagan Road be allocated and transferred for the project.

He said the SIUT, which was already working in Larkana with 26 dialysis machines as a temporary arrangement, needed an appropriate location for establishing a fully-fledged SIUT centre.

The reluctance and lethargy on part of the Land Utilization Department in allocating the land amounted to denial of fundamental rights enshrined in Articles 29, 30, 31 & 32 of the Constitution to the people of Larkana, which could not be tolerated under any circumstances, he said.

Larkana Commissioner Tahir Hussain Sangi told the court that the land in question was meant for agricultural research, however, no other suitable land was available that might be allotted to the SIUT.

After perusing the record submitted by the petitioner, the court learnt the land identified for the establishment of SIUT had been declared most suitable for the purpose and such a recommendation had also been sent to the Secretary, Land Utiliza­tion Department, Board of Revenue Karachi, but no progress had been made on it since then.

The piece of land near Police Training Centre on Wagan Road had been identified for the SIUT, which was direly needed in Larkana and its adjoining areas since kidney patients had to undertake long travel to Sukkur, Hyderabad and Karachi for treatment, he said.

He said the as per relevant law, the land reserved for an amenity purpose could be granted for another amenity purpose subject to the relinquishment of the land by the department or organisation concerned.

The SIUT was meant to serve people of the area and it was the need of the hour that such centres should be established in all the areas of the province so that people might not have to travel to Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur for direly needed treatment, he said.

The court said that the Agriculture Department could acquire the alternative piece of land at some other location and since no suitable plot was available within Larkana for the establishment of SIUT, it would therefore be appropriate that this land be handed over to SIUT for the establishment of its hospital.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2025