Three doctors, as many employees of Multan’s Nishtar Hospital and two station house officers were suspended on Monday over their alleged negligence in the matter pertaining to the discovery of several putrefied bodies on the health facility’s rooftop.
The action was taken on the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi after an initial inquiry report was submitted to him and he was briefed on the matter during a meeting earlier in the day, a statement issued by the CM office said.
The action comes three days after Adviser to the CM Chaudhry Zaman Gujjar constituted a six-member committee to probe the matter following the surfacing of videos of bodies, supposedly abandoned on the rooftop of Nishtar Hospital’s mortuary. The videos were widely shared on social media.
Later, the Punjab government also ordered an inquiry into the incident, and the CM sought a report from the health secretary. An initial inquiry report was submitted to the CM during a meeting he presided over Monday, in light of which, the province’s chief executive took “strict action”, the statement by the CM office said.
He ordered the suspension of Dr Maryam Ashraf, head of the anatomy department at Nishtar Medical University, as well as that of doctors Abdul Wahab and Seerat Abbas from the hospital. The CM further directed that three other employees of Nishtar Hospital, namely Ghulam Abbas, Muhammad Sajjad Nasir and Abdur Rauf should also be suspended.
He ordered the suspension of Shah Rukn-e-Alam Colony SHO Umar Farooq and Seetal Mari SHO Saeed, the statement said, adding that the CM directed that action under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act, 2006 be taken against those responsible for the “negligence”.
“Under no circumstances such treatment of bodies is acceptable,” the statement quoted him as saying. He condemned the incident and noted that in Islam, directives had been laid out for disposing of bodies.
