KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday directed a court official to visit the Jinnah International Airport along with a two-member team of doctors to ascertain whether the first aid and emergency facilities were available there and sought report in three weeks.

Both the sides, the petitioner and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), have suggested the names of three doctors from each side to accompany the nazir who has already been appointed as the commissioner by the court.

On Nov 5, the court had appointed the nazir to inspect the Karachi airport with a view to ascertain whether the first aid and emergency facilities were available there in accordance with the standards prescribed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

When the matter came up before the two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, the lawyer for petitioner and counsel for CAA submitted the names of doctors from their respective sides.

The bench ruled that in pursuance of Nov 5 order, Dr Mohammad Baqir, having expertise in emergency medicine, and Dr A.R. Iftikhar Syed, consultant physician/cardiologist, will be accompanied by the nazir of SHC to visit the airport and they will file report within three weeks.

It also directed the CAA to provide access to both the doctors along with nazir to the airport after proper security clearance, adding that Dr Anil Kumar of the CAA would assist the nazir and facilitate the inspection.

The bench was seized with a petition claiming that such facilities were not available at the airport. The counsel for the CAA, one of the respondents in the petition, however, submitted in court that various facilities as per the ICAO standards were available at the airport.

The petitioner contended that his brother Tariq Zafar died at the Karachi airport in January this year due to unavailability of first aid and basic medical facilities at the airport.

Copy of Uzair’s confession sought

Another bench of the SHC on Thursday directed an investigating officer to produce a copy of confessional statement of detained Lyari gangster Uzair Baloch on the next hearing in a matter pertaining to four missing persons.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice K.K. Agha was hearing a petition regarding the alleged disappearance of Lala Amin, a head constable of jail police, Ghazi Khan, Sher Afzal and Shiraz Khan from the jurisdiction of the New Town police station in 2010.

Earlier, a DIG through a progress report said that Uzair Baloch, who is currently facing trial before military courts, in his confessional statement before a magistrate had confessed to having killed the four due to personal enmity in August 2010, adding that efforts were being made to recover the bodies, but no progress has been made yet.

The bench directed the IO of the case to produce a copy of the confessional statement along with English translation at the next hearing as the bench needed to check the statement of Uzair regarding the missing persons.

It further directed that the DIG (East) will have to appear in person if the IO failed to produce a copy of the confession.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2019