Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered the immediate suspension of eight senior officials and initiated criminal proceedings following a devastating fire that killed 14 newborn babies at a public hospital in Islamabad. The tragedy, which occurred at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), has sparked nationwide outrage and intense demands for accountability.
The fire erupted on the third floor of the hospital's nursery, where 15 newborns were receiving medical care. Flames spread rapidly throughout the unit within two minutes, filling the space with dense smoke and leaving staff almost no time to act.
Amid the chaotic scene, hospital workers managed to rescue only one infant, leaving 14 newborns dead in one of the country's most tragic medical facility disasters.
An interim investigation report presented to the Prime Minister revealed systemic safety failures across the facility. Investigators discovered that the neonatal ward was equipped with neither a fire alarm nor a sprinkler system.
The inquiry revealed critical operational failures during the emergency, noting that senior supervisory staff were inexplicably absent from the neonatal ward when the fire first broke out. Compounding the situation, staff delayed calling emergency services by six minutes, and first responders took an additional 15 minutes to reach the scene after receiving the alert. To make matters worse, a systemic audit of the hospital’s administrative framework showed that out of 13 standard operating procedures, only two contained protocols for handling fire hazards or emergency responses.
The suspended personnel include top administrators, including the hospital’s executive director, two joint executive directors, the head of the neonatal department, senior medical staff, and security officials. Prime Minister Sharif stated that those guilty of criminal negligence would receive "no leniency" as departmental and legal proceedings move forward.
The government has announced financial compensation of 5 million Pakistani rupees for each bereaved family. Meanwhile, regional authorities across Pakistan have initiated immediate safety assessments of fire suppression systems and emergency preparedness protocols in public hospitals nationwide.
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