Health Minister Mustafa Kamal told the Senate on Friday that no one responsible for the fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences would go unpunished. Fourteen babies died in a blaze earlier this week. Kamal said he was speaking on behalf of the Prime Minister and the whole government. He called for real reform of the country’s health sector, not just a short-term response to this tragedy.
Key Points
- Health minister vows accountability, says “not a single person will be spared”
- National Assembly passes resolution demanding impartial probe unanimously
- The government has announced a compensation of Rs5 million for each of the affected families.
- Kamal says 1,300 children die daily in Pakistan from preventable causes
- Inquiry committee report likely to be submitted Friday night
Kamal takes personal responsibility, calls for open-ended inquiry
Kamal began his address by offering condolences for the lives lost. There is no explanation for this. “I am taking responsibility. I have put myself forward to be held to account,” he said. He warned against the issue fading away after a few days in the spotlight, urging real accountability and lasting prevention measures instead.
He specifically asked that no investigating committee be bound by a fixed timetable. “You’re going to find so many things attached to this when you go and investigate this incident,” he said, pointing to what he described as a deeper rot in the health sector. He was candid in admitting that the health system in Pakistan is not ideal and cited a shocking statistic to make his point. “Every year 400,000 children between the ages of one and five die, 1,300 every day; they are all dying preventable deaths,” he said.
Kamal saw the PIMS tragedy, as painful as it was, as a chance to prevent future deaths. “We cannot bring back the babies who died at PIMS, but let us take it as a test from Allah and not let the next kid die,” he said. “If the government does not learn from what happened, then that is not going to change anything,” he stressed.
Minister Swaps Himself for Accountability
Kamal kept putting himself at the center of any accountability process. “Start with me,” he said, putting the whole health ministry under the microscope. Sit with us and save the next from death. And I put the whole ministry at your disposal, and everyone will answer to you.” He admitted the challenge of fixing a system he described as rotten, pointedly asking where a better replacement would come from after removing someone found to be incompetent.
He had to remind the House that by the end of that day alone, about 1,300 children would have died from preventable causes across the country, a grim statistic meant to underline the scale of the problem well beyond this one incident.
Kamal told lawmakers he understood if they distrusted the results, and expected the same the night the inquiry committee released its findings. “If you don’t trust it, fair enough, we will listen to you,” he said. Again he repeated his key promise: “No one will be spared, no matter how powerful.
Kamal asked the Senate to help devise a way forward and a strategic roadmap, assuring the health ministry would share all relevant information and assistance. But he added one caveat: lawmakers should not personally intervene on behalf of individual staff members once accountability measures begin. “No MNA should call and ask why a doctor was removed,” he said.
He said the PIMS fire could be the harbinger of radical reforms in the health sector to avoid such tragedies in the future. He would not disclose other details of the fire until the committee report was published, but said that if the Senate was not satisfied, another committee could be established and everyone should be ready to be held accountable. He said he would stay and listen all nite if need be, and the issue should only be considered closed when real prevention measures are in place.
Resolution for Inquiry Passed by National Assembly
The National Assembly, in a separate development, unanimously adopted a resolution calling for an impartial inquiry into the fire and condolences to the affected families. Lawmakers expressed “profound grief” and “strongly condemned” the incident, a copy of the resolution seen by Dawn said. The resolution called the fire “the product of sheer negligence.”
Lawmakers called on the government to impose stiff legal penalties on those found guilty of negligence or safety lapses. The resolution also called on the government to properly implement fire safety and emergency preparedness in federal government hospitals, particularly in neonatal and pediatric units, so that such incidents are not repeated in the future. The resolution concluded with condolences to the bereaved families and prayers for their strength in this time of sorrow.
Victims’ families to be compensated by government
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said earlier that day that Rs5 million will be given to every family affected by the fire. “The deaths of 14 infants at PIMS are due to somebody’s criminal negligence,” Chaudhry said. He said the prime minister’s inquiry committee was expected to submit its report that day and assured that on-duty staff found guilty of negligence would receive exemplary punishment.
Chaudhry said no amount of compensation could make up for the loss of life or the families’ grief. Their children can never be returned, their grief can never be diminished,” he said, calling the payment a small act of sharing their grief. Prime Minister has sent a compensation cheque to one affected family which I am personally visiting PIMS to hand over and the funds will be deposited directly into the accounts of the mothers of the deceased infants.
Asked about calls for DNA testing of the bodies, Chaudhry said most of the infants died of smoke inhalation rather than burns and all of them had identification tags with their mothers’ names on them at birth, so identification was simple.
What Occurred at PIMS?
The fire at PIMS’ Mother and Child Healthcare Center killed 14 infants on Wednesday. A hospital statement said the blaze, which started in the nursery at 6.38 am, was caused by a spark inside the room and fed by oxygen points at each incubator. Two doctors and two nurses on duty rushed to the scene and called security personnel who tried twice to enter the nursery before an explosion caused part of the ceiling to collapse.
Witnesses described a very different experience, saying they waited hours for emergency services and had to smash windows to get to the ward, with some claiming the doors were locked. The hospital and the government denied the accusations that they responded late and blocked the exits.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formed a high-level inquiry committee to investigate the fire and also removed federal Health Secretary Muhammad Aslam Ghauri from his post shortly afterward. The tragedy has caused a public outcry, with the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on National Health Services separately demanding answers from the PIMS administration over possible negligence and safety failures.
