HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Sindh High Court at Sukkur has ordered an inquiry into substandard medicines for persons with disabilities.
The bench directed the Sindh chief secretary and the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPD) to ensure implementation of the relevant Act of 2018 in letter and spirit. He was also asked to explain as to why the Act and its rules framed in 2021 had not been implemented.
Comprising Justice Zulfiqar Ali Sangi and Justice Riazat Ali Sahar, the bench directed the chief secretary to furnish a compliance report to the court through focal person on the next date of hearing (Nov 5).
The bench passed the order recently while taking up a petition filed by Bakhtiar Khatoon. She informed the bench that her three disabled children were under medical treatment but the medicines prescribed by the consultant concerned were not being provided to her. She said that her children had developed bedsores and required physiotherapy for their proper care at home.
Instead, she said, the medicines of local pharmaceutical companies with different names were being offered to her. The Sukkur DHO submitted in the court that whenever the petitioner would approach his office, medicines as well as diapers of standard quality were provided to her in a sufficient quantity/number.
The court noted that the record also showed that the Sukkur DEPD director filed a statement mentioning his letter addressed to the director health services Sukkur and MS of Ghulam Mohammad Mahar Medical College Sukkur, requesting medical investigations and necessary assistance for differently-abled children of the petitioner as well as to designate a physiotherapist and nurse for their healthcare, to provide services at their doorsteps in view of their serious mobility issues.
The bench said such inquiry be conducted through a competent investigating agency after obtaining a detailed report from the health department if deemed necessary.
Under the circumstances, said the order, the secretary health and Health Department’s incharge of Procurement, Monitoring & Inspection (PM&I) Cell were directed to be in attendance before the court on Nov 5 at 11am. The court said that a copy of the order be sent to the Sindh chief secretary and secretaries of the DEPD and health and incharge of the cell.
The court also mentioned that most of the medicines were not manufactured by multinational companies and appeared to be locally produced.
The court observed that “DPED is not functioning effectively in accordance with the mandate of the Act 2018 as a result a large number of deserving persons with disabilities, including the petitioner’s family, have been deprived of their lawful rights”, said order.
It said: “We have noticed that several orders were passed by this court and even directives issued to the concerned, however, same have not yet been complied with in letter and spirit. Even DPED has not coordinated with petitioner nor petitioner has been benefited under the Act 2018 and Rules framed in 2021,” noted the court.
The bench was of the view that matter apparently concerned only one petitioner but actually highlighted a larger problem as to how welfare laws specially the Act 2018 were being implemented. Repeated disregard of that court’s directives was not just a sign of negligence, it showed an ongoing failure to put the law into proper action for the people it was meant to help, it said.
The court said: “This situation reflects weak administration and a lack of accountability, which prevents the true purpose of such welfare legislation from being realised. The matter, therefore, goes beyond one person’s grievance and points to a systemic failure that needs the court’s attention and corrective action.”
Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2025.
