Criminal cases to be lodged against those ‘responsible’ for Pims fire

ISLAMABAD: Cases will start being registered against those responsible for the Pims fire within the next two to three days, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Tariq Fazl Chaudhry told Truth Wire on Thursday.

Chaudhry said eight people, including the executive director of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, have been suspended following the preliminary report into the incident.

The deadly fire at the hospital’s gynaecology ward — housing 15 newborns — claimed the lives of 14 infants on August 26.

He said the high-level committee formed to probe the incident would submit its final report within the next two days, which would determine the extent of negligence or fault of each of the eight individuals.

“After that, cases will be registered individually against these eight people,” Chaudhry said. He added that police were also conducting their investigation and information would emerge soon.

The minister said the law department was also working on the matter in Islamabad. Chaudhry said police would begin registering cases under criminal laws within two to three days.

In a meeting a day earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed that officials found guilty of “criminal negligence” in the fire incident would be shown no leniency.

Interim report

An interim inquiry report into the fire said the precise source of ignition remains technically unresolved, but cleared frontline clinical staff of abandoning the infants, stating that CCTV evidence showed immediate rescue attempts were made.

“The objective CCTV evidence does not support a generalised finding that frontline clinical staff abandoned the newborns,” the report stated.

The committee said an internal electrical or equipment-related origin remained plausible but available evidence did not conclusively establish whether an incubator, warmer, air conditioner, plug, socket, wiring or another component initiated the fire.

At the institutional level, the committee said evidence already disclosed prima facie serious deficiencies requiring accountability and immediate correction, particularly concerning fire and life-safety preparedness, emergency exits and access, emergency notification, evacuation planning, firefighting arrangements, security coordination and the translation of existing responsibilities into operational readiness.

The committee noted that these concerns acquired greater significance because Pims had experienced another fire only seven weeks earlier, and deficiencies involving substantially similar institutional safeguards had already been formally identified at that time.

The committee said circumstances involving mandatory fire exits allegedly being locked or obstructed, possible culpable failure to act upon previously identified life-safety deficiencies, and any established culpable delay in summoning external emergency services should be referred for criminal investigation where verification disclosed the ingredients of a cognizable offence, while final criminal culpability should remain for the competent investigating and judicial authorities.

It said the record required three separate responses — discipline where an assigned public duty was prima facie neglected, contractual action where outsourced obligations were breached, and criminal investigation where a culpable omission affecting life safety may have materially contributed to the deaths.