Pakistan suspends eight officials over hospital fire that killed 14 babies

Fourteen babies died after a fire swept through the neonatal ward of Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, prompting Pakistan’s prime minister to suspend eight officials and order criminal proceedings against them.

The blaze began shortly before 7 a.m. on Wednesday in the Mother and Child Healthcare Centre. It started inside the nursery and spread rapidly through oxygen outlets fitted to the incubators. Although the fire remained confined to a third-floor nursery, staff rescued only one of the 15 babies being treated there.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued the orders after an investigative committee submitted its interim report. The suspended officials include the hospital’s executive director, two joint executive directors, the head of the neonatal department, two senior doctors, a security official and the head of the Capital Development Authority’s emergency services. Sharif also approved action against the company responsible for hospital security and appointed the National Institutes of Health chief executive as PIMS’s acting director.

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The deaths of these innocent children are a heartbreaking tragedy that has left the entire nation grieving.

The inquiry found that the hospital had no meaningful fire safety protocols. Only two of its 13 standard operating procedures covered fire or emergencies. Supervisory staff were not on duty when the fire began, leaving two nurses, a female security guard and a house officer in the ward. Emergency services were called six minutes after the fire started, and the first responders arrived 15 minutes after receiving the call. The panel also noted that a separate fire at the hospital’s nursing hostel a month earlier had not led to safety improvements.

Sharif called the deaths “a heartbreaking tragedy that has left the entire nation grieving” and promised “exemplary punishment” for those responsible. Nurse Razia Noreen, who pulled one child to safety before flames engulfed the ward, received the Sitara-i-Khidmat state honour and a cash reward of one million rupees.

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exemplary punishment