Prime Minister orders suspensions and prosecutions after hospital fire kills 14 infants

A fire broke out shortly before 7 am on Wednesday in the neonatal ward of Islamabad’s government-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, spreading rapidly through oxygen outlets and killing 14 infants while only one child was saved. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif responded to an interim inquiry by suspending eight senior staff members—including the hospital’s executive director, two joint directors, the head of neonatology, two senior physicians, a security official and the Capital Development Authority’s emergency services chief—and initiating criminal proceedings against them, as well as against the security company employed by the hospital.

He also named the National Institutes of Health chief executive as the acting director of PIMS. The probe found no effective fire-safety protocols and delayed emergency calls, with responders arriving 15 minutes after the alarm. Nurse Razia Noreen was honored with the Sitara-i-Khidmat and a cash reward for pulling a baby to safety. Health Minister Mustafa Kamal labeled the health system “rotten,” called for a parliamentary investigation, and the government pledged five million rupees in compensation for each bereaved family.