LAHORE: The Punjab Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD) Department on Wednesday submitted a data report on public toilet facilities to the Lahore High Court (LHC), revealing that out of 1,420 existing public toilets across the province, 127 are currently non-functional.

The report was filed in response to a petition filed by the Judicial Activism Panel against the government.

The court had previously directed the LG&CD secretary to appear in person to explain the implementation status of provincial sanitation directives.

According to the report, Section 183 of the Punjab Local Government Act, 2025, mandates local governments to provide, maintain, and regularly clean an adequate number of separate public latrines and urinals for each sex at proper locations.

It stated that a specialised technical committee conducted a province-wide data collection exercise covering all 229 local governments of Punjab, using the Punjab Municipal Development Fund Company dashboard, to gauge compliance.

The committee compiled its findings on June 15, 2026.

The consolidated data submitted to the court shows that out of 1,420 public toilets, 1,293 are functional, while 127 remain non-functional. The toilets include 672 for male, 568 for female, 5 for transgender persons, 10 for persons with disabilities and 114 are combined.

JAP counsel Azhar Siddique argued that the public toilets, as per the official data, were insufficient for the population of Punjab. He said the government failed to meet international standards to establish public toilets proportionate to the population.

Justice Raheel Kamran directed the petitioner’s counsel to file a rejoinder to the government’s report in writing by the next hearing.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2026