CHITRAL: A private practicing doctor in Chitral has questioned the composition of a committee constituted by the director general of health services, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to trace the factors behind growing incidents of suicides in the district, and contended that an ideal body on the subject should consist of experts from different disciplines related to the matter.

The committee consists of director (administration) heath services Dr Azmatullah, district health officer Chitral Dr Israrullah and two deputy directors of psycho-social programme of the directorate general health services.

Requesting not to be named, the doctor said a psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist of national stature, an epidemiologist, a social scientist, a police officer with sound knowledge of criminology and varied experience in field work were essential to reach at a conclusion and find the factors contributing to suicidal deaths.

Doctor says the committee should consist of experts

He said given the frequency of suicides among the young people in Chitral, the committee should be broad-based as the reasons of suicides had been different ranging from failure in examinations to marriage against one’s own will or choice.

He said the social reasons could not be excluded which contributed to the depression which fell under the purview of a sociologist while presence of a criminologist was inevitable to discern between the ‘honour killing’ and suicide.

He said the psychiatry and psychology were two different disciplines supplementing each other and the complex situation in the context of Chitral was beyond the scope of a single discipline.

Niaz A Niazi Advocate, a human rights activist, said honour killing could not be ruled out in Chitral in case of young women which are easily concealed as ‘suicide’ and due to the complications in the existing criminal laws, the perpetrators got scot free which emboldened the others to commit the act without any fear.

He said despite the phenomenal surge in the number of suicidal cases in Chitral, the sanctioned posts of district psychiatrist were lying vacant since the inception of the hospital in early 1990s.

Husool Begum, a member of the district council, said the suicides of women should be probed thoroughly as in most cases the relatives murdered them and named it suicide.

When contacted, district health officer Dr Israrullah, said the committee was yet to reach here to start work while exact and authentic data collection would form the first component of the terms of reference of the committee.

Regarding the absence of experts of different disciplines in the body, he said such people might be included on need basis.

COMPENSATION: Chitral deputy commissioner Khrushid Alam Mehsud on Saturday gave away compensation cheques of Rs100,000 each to the 21 families rendered homeless by the flash flood on the morning of Eidul Azha.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2018