Tazeen Akhtar
Pakistan was mourning the brutal murder of 4 years old Ayat Nur of Haripur KP who was kidnapped and molested by 3 young criminals who killed her and threw the dead body into a blind well that was recovered only one day before a fire at the nursery of PIMS took lives of 14 new born babies in Islamabad. The consecutive incidents of innocent deaths, children’s kidnaps, rapes and murders, deaths for patients in the hospitals with wrong are careless treatments and many other incidents have left the public with no other option than to think where we are living and what is our future in a state where infants even are not safe.
The latest incident at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences PIMS is the largest government hospital in the capital city of Islamabad where there at Gynae Ward or Children Nursery , the carelessness was at that level, not one two but 14 newly born babies burnt in a fire that erupted on the early hours on Wednesday, 26 Aug. How painful………………
Assistant Director CDA Fire Operations Tashfeen Zaman Afridi presented the preliminary report as 7 babies died. The Interior Minister condoled the death of 14 babies, which is the correct number.
The CDA report noted that the fire and life safety arrangements were inadequate , compromised and not as per standard requirements. Emergency exit routes were found permanently locked from outside or obstructed. Security staff of the hospital created hindrance to the initial response of the fire crew. Inadequate crowd management was observed at the incident site.
Child Abduction
Here it is pertinent to suggest one thing. The authorities should and must check everything including the number of the kids present in the nursery at the time of fire and the number of dead bodies as well.
We know in some cases, the new born were missing and later the staff was found involved in kidnap and sale out of the missing infants. Here too , the fire at this sensitive place is unexpected, therefore it is possible that some infants have been stolen and the nursery set on fire deliberately to remove the evidence.
This hospital remains in the news most often for negative things including rude doctors, non cooperative para medical staff, no medicine and mistreatment instead of treatment of the patients.
Today, 14 infants had to sacrifice their lives to again attract the attention of the decision makers to do their duty towards the public of this lawless systemless country.
They forced me to have C-section (The woman crying in the featured pic)
The mother in a video is telling everything about the system and governance in this hospital and the same can be applied to the country as well because the country is also a hospital now and the people are paitents ; patients of mental torture, insecurity about future of their children and disappointment on the managers of this country.
She says she is here for 15 days and she has seen everything that the staff is doing here. She was forcibly asked to agree to an operation for the birth of her child that most of the doctors opt for because it is easy for them and actually it is detrimental for the mother because a mother can not give birth to a child after two or three such operations. How cruel the doctors are …………..
Midwifes Restoration
We have raised the issue of restoration of the posts of MidWives in the hospitals because newly appointed doctors are not able to deal with complicated cases and they abruptly decide for operation and damage the physical health of the mother.
The attendant girl who saved her nephew
It is wrong that some babies were saved by the staff. The only baby who was saved was nephew of young Muneeba who is in the featured picture. She saved her infant nephews and sister in law, who appeared in a video, recounted how a commotion broke out at 6:00 a.m. due to a fire; she picked up her newborn nephew, took her sister-in-law along, and rushed toward the outer gate.
Staff ran away
No staff members were present there, as everyone had already fled. However, staff stopped us at the outer gate and would not let us leave, claiming that if we went outside, the news would spread.
Departments Departments but no Output
It is extremely unfortunate that at the central level , Pakistan has a department for the safety of the rights of children named National Commission on Rights of Child NCRC, At NCRC, the government has accommodated a favorit , Ayesha Raza Farooq. She was earlier awarded a seat in the Senate of Pakistan and when she completed 6 years of “Serving” the nation at the upper house of the Parliament, was given another seat as Chairperson of this commission.
We have a department for the women as the rights of children are violated and the mothers are disturbed, it is called the National Commission on the Status of Women NCSW. This commission has not activated itself at mass level , no public interaction, no case this commission has dealt with so far and mainly it is just a show piece for the international donors with little activity at diplomatic enclave or in five star hotels only.
We also have Human Rights Commission of Pakistan under the Chairperson Rabia Javery Aagha who was actually Secretary of the Ministry of Human Rights when she took early retirement to grab the post of Chairperson of this commission and now enjoying the perks and privileges equal to High Court Judge with no merit and rules regulations.
And the Ministry of Human Rights itself. What is this ministry doing ? Any performance in safety of human rights ? We do not say Zero, let them share what is their performance to curb kidnaps and murders of children after their rape. How they act when incidents like PIMS are occurring. We have not seen any reaction from any of these departments.
Because Children do not Cast Vote
We have been pointing out that children have no rights in Pakistan because they are not voters ………….. Yes ! The decision makers do not take the matters of children , from education and health to safety only because they are not registered in voters lists and they do not cast votes.
President , Prime Minister , Health Minister , this minister, that will definitely issue already prepared rhetoric statements of grief and will order an inquiry but nothing will come out and no one responsible for this sheer negligence that caused irreparable loss to the parents will be brought before the public and neither will be punished.
Tomorrow the people will see another incident , more deaths and begin mouring on them and this incident will vanish in the dirt of time………
