KARACHI: The Sindh High Court was informed on Wednesday that rules about population control and mass vaccination of stray dogs would be notified within two weeks after its approval by the provincial cabinet.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar sought a compliance report from the local government department on the next hearing about restoration of a helpline dedicated only for lodging complaints about stray dogs.

The bench also issued directives to cantonment authorities to continue their efforts to eliminate dog-bite incidents in their jurisdictions and called compliance reports.

LG officials assure court to restore 1093 helpline for lodging complaints about street dogs

When a petition about rise in dog-bites cases in the province and shortage of anti-rabies vaccines at government-run hospitals came up for hearing on Wednesday, additional secretary-local government Abid Ali filed a progress report in the light of the court’s last order along with the minutes of a cabinet meeting held on May 11.

According to the minutes, the approval of bye-laws on population control and mass vaccination of stray dogs was on the agenda and cabinet had approved the same and sent for final vetting to the law department.

The official made a clear statement that after approval by the cabinet, the rules would be notified within two weeks for information of public.

He further assured the bench that these rules would be implemented across the board and necessary instructions be issued to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and district municipal corporations (DMCs) for strict implementation.

As far as the cantonment boards are concerned, the counsel for Cantonment Board Malir submitted that they were vigilant and pursuing the issue of stray dogs while lawyer for the Cantonment Board Clifton submitted that in pursuance of the court order, the CBC had constituted a task force to control stray dogs and in due course of time they would also able to vaccinate and sterilise most of the street dogs.

The bench directed the chief executive officer of CBC to ensure that the task force must proactively perform its duties and the task of vaccination/sterilisation of stray dogs must be done on a daily basis and a progress report be submitted on the next hearing.

The lawyer for Cantonment Board Manora also submitted a progress report while counsel representing Cantonment Board Faisal and Cantonment Board Korangi Creek undertook to file progress reports within two days.

The counsel for DMC-Malir also submitted that a large number of dangerous dogs had been killed and efforts would be continued in future.

At this, petitioner Advocate Tariq Mansoor submitted that in compliance with an earlier order, a helpline (1093) was especially dedicated for lodging dog-bite complaints, but the LG department had converted this helpline for lodging general complaints.

He stated that currently this helpline was not functional and two new numbers of eight digits had been advertised causing inconvenience to the public to report the complaints of dog-bite cases.

The additional secretary and section officer of the LG department could not offer any justification, but undertook to restore the helpline (1093) for lodging complaints about street dogs.

They said the helpline would be advertised again for the convenience of public. The bench sought a compliance report on the next hearing.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2021