CS summoned to explain govt's failure to mitigate flood victims' sufferings.

HYDERABAD -- The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court has directed Sindh chief secretary to appear in court on Dec 14 and explain his position on government's failure to take concrete steps to redress flood victims' sufferings despite issuance of several orders and submission of undertakings by the officials concerned.

A division bench comprising Justices Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Adnanul Karim Memon passed the order on Thursday on multiple petitions pertaining to large scale devastations by the recent floods filed by victims and lawyers.

The bench issued a show-cause notice to the chief secretary's focal person Dr Saeed Ahmed Qureshi for his absence from the court despite directives issued to him in the previous (October 27) hearing.

The court had passed several orders but the government had not made any progress on their compliance and only filed reports showing progress on papers, noted the court in the order.

Nothing tangible has been done despite undertakings and promises by officials, SHC bench regrets

Referring to the order passed in the previous hearing, the court observed that the auditor general was directed to conduct a forensic audit of the funds released by Sindh government to districts for the rehabilitation of flood victims but nothing had been done in this regard since then.

Dr Qureshi, focal person for the CS, had sought a month's time on the previous hearing to submit a progress report and in the meantime submit an interim report on the efforts and steps taken so far to redress the victims' grievances.

The order noted the focal person was absent from hearing without any intimation to the court. 'Let a show-cause notice be issued to him,' read the order, adding that government functionaries and representatives of Provincial Disaster Management Authority...