Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry on Wednesday sought a comprehensive report from the Punjab health secretary, Lahore district coordination officer (DCO) and other departments of the district administration on the measures adopted until now to check the dengue epidemic and provide medical treatment to patients suffering from the deadly disease.
After hearing arguments of Noshab A Khan, the court directed the respondents to let it know in writing within a week as to why they failed to timely control the spread of dengue and why quality material was not used to spray on places where dengue threat existed. The petitioner blasted the Punjab government for criminally ignoring its constitutional responsibility to protect life of citizens and did not adopt timely and effective steps to combat dengue. He contends that despite alarming calls by the media and other sources, the Punjab government took no action and noticed the issue only when this disease had gone out of control and citizens began to lose their lives. Noshab said that at present, the number of dengue patients has run into thousands and both public and private hospitals have run short of space to accommodate them due to which life of a number of patients was at serious risk for which the Punjab government was responsible.
He said that huge funds were allocated to counter such contingency but no use of these funds was made in time and the use of these funds was still shrouded in mystery. The petitioner contended that preventive medicines and other materials used against dengue have either become rare in the market or their prices have been raised many times and authorities were doing nothing to keep a check on there prices and ensure their availability in the market. The petitioner alleged that highly-substandard and unwholesome liquid was being used in spray at places where dengue threat existed and that in most of the cases, used mobile oil was being sprayed which added to the miseries of the people. He contended that authorities were still apathetic towards the plight of citizens and regardless of the fact whether people live or die, they have taken no special steps and were involved in looting of funds. The petitioner said that given this situation, the court was the only resort against the problem.
