Tezgam incident: IHC summons interior, railways ministries' secretaries on Feb 24

Dunya News

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani presided over hearing of the case on Monday.

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday strictly ordered secretaries of the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Railways to personally appear in the next hearing on Feb. 24 in the case of the Oct. 31 Tezgam fire tragic incident near Rahim Yar Khan.

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani presided over hearing of the case, and expressed displeasure over the proceedings and response from the concerned ministries over the matter.

“Does [the court] needs to summon the Prime Minister now?” the judge asked angrily, adding that people were burnt to death while the two ministries were unaware of telling anything.

“Do we need to tell the Prime Minister that the two ministries aren’t working [properly]?” he questioned.

“Both ministries are asleep as they think that nobody had died in the incident […] if you won’t work, then we will make you work through [the court’s] orders.”

“Even the federal government doesn’t know if an FIR was lodged or not […][you] are oppressing the people while sitting in a building in Islamabad,” the judge remarked.

“Do you consider the Islamabad High Court “a sort of postal office”? […] after passage of five months, you are writing a letter seeking a report,” the chief justice of IHC lamented.

Meanwhile, the court also ordered all investigation officers in the case to personally appear in the next hearing.