Cleaning of drainage system: Sindh government's plea for reassignment of task turned down

KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday turned down a plea of the Sindh government to reassign it the task of cleaning of the drainage system in the metropolis a day after its handing over to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under its orders.

At the Karachi Registry, a three-member bench of the SC, headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Justice Gulzar Ahmed, rejected the plea of the Sindh government after it resumed hearing on the rain-related problems and cleaning of drains in the city.

The Sindh government furnished its performance report on recent rains and the steps it took to mitigate rain-related problems in the city. "Sindh Government showed us the pictures of two nullahs, cleaned in the city and pretending as the entire city has been cleaned," Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed remarked in response to the report of the Sindh government.

He questioned why the city was inundated when the drains were cleaned and then why the NDMA had to step in to clean the drains. The Advocate-General of Sindh, Salman Talabuddin, submitted that the provincial government didn't know why the NDMA was assigned the task when work had been done on different nullahs in the city.

He informed the court that work on cleaning the nullahs was being carried out with the financial assistance of the World Bank, and the chief minister of Sindh had been personally monitoring the work in this regard. Sindh government's attorney sought time till August 30 to clean the drainage system of the city.

However, the bench stated that the NDMA had already been carrying out the work, and the provincial government was required to help it to overcome the problems causing miseries to the people. The advocate-general said that machinery and human resources of the Sindh government would be deployed in cleaning the city whereas the NDMA personnel would only be supervising it.

He also requested the court to make the order of the last hearing clear as the Sindh government would be totally out of the scene if the NDMA had to clean the nullahs. "Why are you concerned now when in the last hearing no one said that work is being done and nullahs are being cleaned," the CJP said to the submission by provincial government's attorney.

The Chief Justice observed that the Sindh government should not be bothered over cleaning of the nullahs by the NDMA if it cared about the people of Karachi. Meanwhile, the SC bench rejected the petition of the affectees of the P&T Colony, saying that the court would not tolerate illegal occupation of government land.

The court ruled that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) had had no right to lease the land out as it was the land of the federal government for quarters of its employees. The SC also ordered Karachi commissioner to complete the verification of the affected people of the revival of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) when court was told that alternative land had not been provided to the affected people despite court orders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020