The Sindh High Court (SHC) Tuesday rejected an official report on drought in Tharparkar district calling it unsatisfactory and ordered the administration to explain their position on the negligence in relief work.
The SHC bench, presided over by Chief Justice Mabool Baqir, was hearing the suo motu case of the drought-hit district. The reports were submitted by the secretaries of health, food and revenue departments.
During the hearing, Justice Baqir remarked that it was very disappointing to know that there was no formula devised for the distribution of wheat and the staple food in the drought-hit areas.
The chief justice remarks came when the provincial secretary of the food department confessed that 22,758 families were still deprived of the relief goods in the district.
He further remarked that it was apparent that a number of children died of malnutrition too. More than a 100 children died in the past three months, the reports said, linking the deaths with the drought.
However, the authorities claimed that majority of infant deaths occurred due to general diseases including pneumonia and meningitis.
The bench observed that the official reports raised more questions instead of the giving satisfactory answers and the state of the affairs indicated the cruelty meted out to the people of Sindh province.
The SHC also formulated a judicial committee to review the relief work and ordered the authorities to tap on all the available resources to ensure smooth distribution of food and other relief goods to the drought-hit areas.
The court also ordered the officials to contact the Army Aviation to send the relief goods by aerial distribution.
