Pakistan’s National Assembly and Senate both approved motions Friday to form a special parliamentary committee investigating the PIMS hospital fire that killed 14 newborns, as Health Minister Mustafa Kamal told a stormy Senate session that “not a single person” found responsible would be spared.
A Rare Show of Cross-Party Unity
Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar moved the motion in the National Assembly, while Senator Sherry Rehman moved it in the Senate. Senate Chairman Yousaf Raza Gilani and National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq were authorised to constitute the committee through mutual consultation, including determining its membership and terms of reference. “I am the health minister. I consider myself responsible,” Kamal told the Senate. “I presented myself for accountability.”
Kamal urged that the committee’s proceedings be made public. “It should be known to the public what this House is doing when it is holding someone accountable,” he said, adding that he wanted findings within eight to 10 days and invoking past tragedies, including the Gul Plaza fire, that he said should not be “consigned to history” without consequence.
Sharp Questions From Lawmakers
PPP parliamentary leader Sherry Rehman criticised reports that emergency exits at PIMS had been closed, saying such doors must remain accessible during emergencies, and pointed to discrepancies between PIMS’s own account and findings from the Capital Development Authority, which had reportedly flagged concerns about the hospital’s fire safety arrangements beforehand. PTI Senator Mashal Azam said the government bore responsibility for the deaths, while Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas demanded the immediate removal of the PIMS executive director.
PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan called for a high-level, impartial inquiry with a publicly released report, noting the incident was not the first tragedy of its kind in Pakistan. MNA Sehar Kamran said committee members had not yet been given requested CCTV footage, and urged that the probe rely on scientific and forensic evidence rather than official statements alone, asking pointedly who was responsible for ensuring the ward’s sprinklers and emergency exits functioned.
A Separate Inquiry Already Under Way
The parliamentary committee will work alongside a separate inquiry Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered days earlier, headed by retired federal secretary Shahid Khan alongside Major General (retired) Dr Khurshid Utra, Dr Barrister Nabeel Ahmed Awan and the Deputy Commissioner Islamabad. That committee has already visited Fire Brigade Headquarters, recorded statements from rescue personnel and reviewed the response timeline from when the fire broke out to when crews arrived. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry separately handed compensation cheques of Rs5 million each to the affected families, saying in a statement that the payment could not be considered a price for their irreparable loss.
Why It Matters
The unanimous parliamentary response, spanning government and opposition benches, reflects the scale of public anger over the tragedy. Whether the promised transparency and eight-to-10-day timeline hold, particularly given lawmakers’ complaints about withheld CCTV footage, will determine whether the accountability process meets the standard Kamal himself set in the Senate.
