KARACHI: Expressing extreme annoyance over the provincial government failure to supply food and relief to the people in drought-hit parts of Tharparkar, the Sindh High Court on Monday directed the authorities concerned to request army aviation and other departments to airlift relief goods to the 22,758 families who are still without food and relief supplies.

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar was seized with the hearing of three identical petitions pertaining to the drought-hit people of the desert.

The bench also ordered the formation of a committee, headed by the additional district and sessions judge of Tharparkar, to check and monitor the performance of health officials posted in the drought-hit area. A senior doctor of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation and Dr Sono Khanghrani of the Sindh Rural Support Organization were ordered to be the members of the committee.

The bench visibly became irked as it went through a report of the senior member of board of revenue and relief commissioner who conceded that as many as 22,758 families were still without food and relief supplies.

“It has come on record that several deaths were caused due to acute shortage of food in Tharparkar,” said Chief Justice Baqar, adding that it was sheer injustice to the people of the province.

The bench directed the committee to file a report regarding the adequacy, efficiency and effectiveness of various health facilities in the area by April 8, the next date of hearing.

The court also directed the provincial government to place on record the entire mechanism of the food supply system in the province and more particularly in its far-flung areas.

The bench ordered Fazalur Rahman, Ghulam Mustafa and Makhdoom Aqeeluz Zaman, who were posted as relief commissioner, Mirpurkhas commissioner and deputy commissioner respectively at the relevant time, to appear in court well prepared to meet all relevant queries. The officials were also warned not to avoid appearance in court on any pretext.

The senior member of board of revenue and relief commissioner, Alamdin Bullo, informed the court that the provincial government had committed a quota of 131,721 wheat bags of 100 kilos each and 110,371 bags had been supplied. He said that the remaining wheat bags were expected to arrive by Wednesday and it would be distributed within the next four days.

To provide relief to ailing people, he said, around 6,280,038 stocks of 66 different medicines were provided to district and taluka headquarter hospitals.

The relief commissioner said that outbreak of diseases led to the death of around 188 patients altogether, including 109 children, since Dec 1, 2013.

He said the main causes of death of children were sepsis, haemorrhagic disease, birth asphyxia, pneumonia, mayo cordial infection and malnutrition.

He said that as many as 34 medical camps were established by the PPHI and 15 mobile medical teams/camps being run with the help of local NGO and government functionaries.

Besides, he said, a 40-bed hospital for male patients was also set up in an adjoining building of the Civil Hospital Mithi.

The commissioner said that 52 medics including 14 women medical officers and 16 specialists were posted in the affected area on March 14. The joining process of the current appointees would complete preferably by March 26, he said. He said at present 81 medics, including one gynaecologist, were working in the district.

He said that as a future strategy and to mitigate the gravity of probable disaster, the government was working on short-term, medium-term as well as long-term plans to combat the situation.

One of the petitions seeking measures to deal with the Tharparkar tragedy was filed by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum and rights campaigner Javed Iqbal Burki, who impleaded the secretary of the establishment division, the ministry of national food security and research, interior minister, director general of the Federal Investigating Agency, chief secretary, local government secretary, provincial revenue and relief secretary, health secretary, national regulations and services secretary as well as federal and provincial chiefs of the National Disaster Management Authority as respondents.

Other petitions were filed by the Sindh High Court Bar Association and Rana Faizul Hasan, a civil rights campaigner and secretary general of the United Human Rights of Pakistan.

Piler, represented by Advocates Faisal Siddiqui and Mohammad Vawda, submitted that more than 200 people, including women and children, died in Tharparkar as a direct result of, inter-alia, famine, malnutrition, disease and criminal negligence of the respondents.

Through the petition, they sought justice and enforcement of fundamental rights and the law, for the victims, the survivors and their families, and directions from the high court to deal with the Tharparkar tragedy and to avoid such tragedies in the future.

It was submitted that most areas of Tharparkar district, including Tehsil/Taluka Mithi, Chachro, Diplo, Islamkot, Nagarparkar and Khinsar, were facing a famine-like situation and more than 200 people, a majority of whom were reported to be malnourished children, died. Over 175,000 families were reported to have been affected and some of them have been forced to leave their homes and move to barrage areas, the court was informed.