The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday gave the district government a 30-day deadline to clean Hujra Shah Muqeem, a municipality in Okara, from where a picture circulated on the social media showed a funeral procession passing through sewage.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar, while presiding over a three-member bench, questioned the chairman of the area’s elected committee over the pollution and garbage in the locality.
“What is happening in your area? Have you seen the piles of garbage in your area? You haven’t improved the conditions in a little more than a year,” said the CJP while addressing the local government representative. In response, the municipal committee chairman assured the top judge that the conditions are improving and further improvement will come in two more weeks.
The CJP remarked that the place from where the funeral procession was passing was not fit for normal passage.
Despite being summoned during the previous hearing of the case, Hujra Shah Muqeem’s member provincial assembly (MPA) failed to appear before the court yet again.
The MPA’s lawyer informed the court that the official is currently out of the country. The court then set a deadline of a month for the authorities to clean the town and the hearing was adjourned till the first week of May.
Earlier on March 20, the CJP took suo motu notice of the picture which showed a funeral procession passing through a street overflowing with sewage. Four men were seen carrying the body while others walked on the sideways to avoid stepping into the sewage.
During the hearing of the case, the CJP directed the attention of the attorney general and advocate general towards the photo.
“We will take the Member National Assembly (MNA), councillor and other officials of whatever area is depicted in the photo to task [over the unsanitary conditions],” Justice Nisar had said.