ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court witnessed a miracle on Thursday as a five-year-old boy fell through a missing windowpane and hit the marble floor more than 40 feet below him, and lived to tell the tale.
He did, however, suffer two leg fractures.
The incident was blamed on the Public Works Department (PWD), which had repeatedly been asked to replace the missing window.
Hussain came to the court on Thursday with his father Muhammad Nawaz for a custody case, which was fixed before Bench No 3. He was playing outside the courtroom with his three-year-old sister Haleema when he fell through the window.
Retired KMC employee jumps to his death from Karachis Civic Centre building
He was taken to the Supreme Court dispensary, from where doctors referred him to Pims. Till the filing of this report, he was still in the emergency ward getting treatment for the fractures.
A senior SC official told The Express Tribune that PWD officials did not replace the windowpane, despite their attention being drawn to the issue on several occasions. He said a show cause notice had been issued to the relevant officials over their negligence.
More than Rs200 million was spent recently to renovate the Supreme Court building. After the unfortunate incident on Thursday, PWD officials immediately replaced the window.
When police officials informed the two-member bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal, about the accident, they adjourned the case for a week.
The mother of the boy was also in the courtroom at the time and rushed to the hospital as soon as she heard of the incident.
Espresso delivery boy falls to death in Karachi elevator accident
Advocate Sadique Baloch, counsel for the father, revealed some facts of the case when in court. He said the mother was an Afghan national and had approached the Supreme Court against a Lahore High Court order which restrained her from taking the minor children out of the country.
Laiba Sultan and Muhammad Nawaz got married in 2010 and separated in March 2016.
Not the first
In May 2016, a fire erupted in the Supreme Court building, damaging offices of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and Press Association of Supreme Court (PAS). PWD was also blamed for this incident.
A Supreme Court staffer, requesting anonymity, said the fire alarm system was not working and that this allowed the incident to occur.
PWD staff confirmed to The Express Tribune that senior court officials repeatedly pointed out the lack of a system to cope with such incidents. They said the fire alarm system of the SC has not been repaired for five years, while a new system had been pending for some time.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2016.
