KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to make public the names of the patients suffering from the coronavirus across the province.
Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar held a hearing into the admissibility of the petition and reprimanded the petitioner, Imran Shahzad, for seeking to make public those who were suffering from the epidemic.
“The government is not revealing the names and you have come to ask the court to reveal them?” Justice Mazhar said, addressing the petitioner.
“What kind of a petition is this? Who are you [to ask for such a directive] and why do you want to know the names of the carriers?” Justice Mazhar questioned.
“Will the people who have already recovered from the virus be comfortable with their name being made public in this regard” he further asked the petitioner. To which, the petitioner said that he wanted to know about the details of the treatment being given to patients who had recovered so far.
“Has a cure being invented for the virus yet?” Justice Mazhar asked Shahid in return. “The cure has not been invented. The treatment would explain what is effective against the virus,” the petitioner responded.
“A petition into every small matter should not be brought to the court. There is a lot of material available to dismiss the petition. Why do you wish to know about the deaths from 2019?” the judge asked the petitioner.
“I need to compare the deaths from last year to deaths this year,” the petitioner replied. The judge then asked the petitioner to remove unnecessary requests from the petition and dismissed the plea.
