Court summons secretary of finance.

LARKANA -- The QamAbar-Shahdadkot district and sessions judge Zahid Hussain Maitlo has direcAted the Sindh secretary of finance to appear before him on Nov 23 and submit a detailed report on the district headquarters hospital's budget, explaining why the Schedule of New Expenditure (SNE) for the hospital has not yet been approved.

The judge passed the order after special secretary of health submitted a report to the court on Wednesday that the competent authority [chief minister] had sanctioned the budget for the hospital but it had run into snags in the finance department.

The judge had taken notice of shortage and unavailability of medicines at the hospital and directed the health secretary to submit the report on Nov 16 and explain why the budget and SNE for the hospital had not been sanctioned yet.

Earlier, the judge had sent a letter to the...