SHC dismisses petition seeking to make public names of coronavirus patients

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to make public the names of the patients suffering from the novel coronavirus across the province, Geo News reported.

Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar held a hearing into the admissibility of the petition today and reprimanded the petitioner, Imran Shahzad, for seeking to make public those who were suffering from the contagion. 

"The government is not revealing the names and you have come to ask the court to reveal them?" Justice Mazhar said, addressing the petitioner during the hearing into the plea on Tuesday morning. 

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'Will patients be comfortable with names made public?'

"What kind of a petition is this? Who are you and why do you want to know the names of the people infected with the virus?" Justice Mazhar questioned during the proceedings in the courtroom. 

"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, looking for an explanation into the plea.

Responding to this, the petitioner told the judge that he wanted to know about the details of the treatment being given to patients who had recovered from the mysterious illness so far. 

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'Treatment would explain what is effective'

"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 filed to 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.