Locusts' attacks: SHC issues notices to federal, Sindh governments

Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday issued notices to Federal and Sindh Governments in a petition pertaining to swarming of the various districts of the provinces by locusts. A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar ordered the authorities to submit their comments by December 10, 2019 in the petition, filed by Syed Mureed Ali Shah Advocate.

Federal Government through Ministry of National Food Security & Research, Chief Minister Sindh, Chief Secretary, provincial minister and secretary of agriculture department have been made respondents in the petition. Petitioner submitted that the reports, photographs and videos of swarms of locusts flying and resting around agricultural fields emerged from Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Tharparkar, Khairpur, Dadu, Matiari, Jamshoro, Nawabshah, Naushehro Feroze and Sanghar districts, sparking fears of large-scale crop devastation and the agriculture sector would suffer huge financial losses of billions of rupees.

The petitioner also stated that situation is very serious but Agriculture Minister in a video message told the public not to fear, but enjoy locust biryani and karahi.

He said it is the duty of all the executive authorities in the federation and the provinces to protect the life and property of the common people but in this case they have failed to perform their duties as enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973.

The petitioner requested the court to direct the respondents to ensure constitutionally guaranteed right to life by carrying out aerial and ground spray operations to kill the locusts without any further delay to protect the grower's livelihood.

He also prayed the court to direct the respondents to carry out the survey of the affected areas and provide relief to the affected farmers by declaring such area stricken/damaged.

He also pleaded the court to declare that respondents failed to perform their constitutional duty by failing to carry out ground and aerial spray operations to kill the locusts which caused huge amounts of damages to Sindh's farmers.

Meanwhile, Additional Advocate General Sindh submitted the notification of sugarcane price of Rs192 per 40 kgs for the current crushing season in the province the division bench of the SHC, hearing the petition regarding non-compliance of court orders to fix the sugarcane price.

Additional Advocate told the court that provincial cabinet gave approval to the new sugarcane price for crushing season 2019-20, which has been notified by meeting all the legal requirements.