KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday sought a copy of a judgement of the apex court in a Covid-19 case during the hearing of a petition filed over non-provision of treatment to general patients at government and private healthcare facilities of the provincial metropolis.

When the matter came up for hearing before the two-judge bench headed by Justice Omar Sial, the bench observed that the Supreme Court had already been hearing the matter related to coronavirus and issued directives to evolve a mechanism in this regard.

However, the petitioners, advocates Asim Iqbal and Nadeem Shaikh, insisted that it was a different matter and had not been taken up for hearing before the apex court.

They contended that the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital had not been providing outpatient department services to patients.

Abbasi Shaheed Hospital not providing OPD services to patients, court told in a plea

The bench put off the matter till July 7 and directed the petitioners to produce the copy of the apex court order in the Covid-19 suo motu case at the next hearing.

Impleading three major government-run hospitals and five private hospitals of the provincial metropolis as respondents, the petitioners contended that the hospitals were avoiding providing first aid or any other kind of treatment to the general patients due to Covid-19 pandemic and asking them for coronavirus test results.

In the last hearing, all respondent hospitals apart from the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital informed the bench that they were providing OPDs and emergency services to the patients and the bench had also directed the Sindh Healthcare Commission (SHCC) to ensure that these hospitals continue to provide OPDs and emergency services to the patients.

The acting CEO of the SHCC had also submitted that they inspected all the hospitals made respondents in the petition and found that they were performing their duties and were functional in accordance with the SOPs issued by the SHCC, but the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital had closed the OPD for which SHCC had already issued notice to its medical superintendent.

PPP MNAs move court

Three MNAs of the Pakistan Peoples Party on Tuesday approached the Sindh High Court over non-provision of development funds.

Qadir Patel, Agha Rafiullah and Jam Abdul Karim through their counsel filed a petition against the federal government and contended that the federal government had released development funds of 18 out of 21 MNAs elected from the provincial metropolis.

They further argued that the development funds of the petitioners, who were elected from the city on the PPP ticket, had not been released and maintained that funds were released to the MNAs of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and its ally Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan only.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2020