The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan on Tuesday set up a judicial commission on Tuesday to investigate into the causes of poor sanitary conditions and shortage of potable water throughout the province. The newly-formed one-man judicial commission was mandated to find out the faults within the system that caused failure of safe drinking water supply, smooth sewerage and solid waste management services and then recommend remedial measures to overcome the problems.
A bench of the apex court of Pakistan comprising Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Mushir Alam ordered the constitution of judicial commission while hearing a constitutional petition at its Karachi registry that was filed by Advocate Shahab Usto who sought the s court's directives to the relevant authorities for pure drinking water and clean environment to the people in Sindh province.
The SC directed the Sindh High Court's chief justice to nominate a sitting judge within a week to head the commission. The commission would complete its proceedings and submit its findings within six weeks, according to the order. The provincial chief secretary Rizwan Memon and other provincial and municipal authorities appeared before court complying with the notices and also submitted their reports. They informed the bench that they were making serious efforts to ensure potable water supply and clean environment in the province.
Earlier, the petitioner from district Shikarpur, submitted that the Sindh government had established the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation (NSUSC) in 2009-10 for delivering clean water supply, sewerage and solid-waste services in a safe, efficient and effective manner in the districts of the upper Sindh including Sukkur, New Sukkur, Rohri, Khairpur, Larkana, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Ghotki but that had not benefited the people in these districts.
The organisation was established by obtaining a huge loan from the Asian Development Bank. He argued that the provincial government had failed to provide drinking water to people in the upper and lower parts of the province. The subsoil water, which the locals of these districts had to consume, was contaminated and deleterious for the human consumption, he said. The court had earlier observed that the issue was of public importance, which had direct link with the fundamental rights of the residents of Sindh living not only in upper Sindh's districts, but also in the lower Sindh.