Islamabad: Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Syed Mustafa Kamal on Friday assured the Senate that anyone found responsible for the PIMS tragedy would not be spared, regardless of their position or influence.
‘No one will be spared, no matter how powerful and every person found responsible will face accountability,’ he assured the House while responding to an adjournment motion.
The minister backed a parliamentary inquiry to establish accountability and help prevent a recurrence of the incident, stressing that no family should have to lose a child in such circumstances again.
He said there could be no explanation or justification for the loss of innocent lives and described the 14 children who lost their lives in the tragedy as martyrs.
Mustafa Kamal said an inquiry committee constituted by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was expected to submit its report within 24 hours.
He urged the senators to examine the report once it was received and said if the House found that any issue had been overlooked or remained dissatisfied with its findings, further investigation should be carried out.
The minister gave a categorical assurance that neither the Prime Minister nor the government intended to protect anyone.
Kamal also supported the proposal put forward by senators for a parliamentary committee, saying the government would extend full cooperation to it.
He said all relevant information would be provided to the committee and officials would be made available before it so that lawmakers could question them and examine the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
However, the minister urged parliament not to restrict its examination merely to one incident or one hospital.
He said the PIMS tragedy should become the basis for identifying deep-rooted weaknesses in Pakistan’s healthcare system and developing a strategy to save the next child from a preventable death.
Kamal said around 400,000 children between the ages of one and five die annually in Pakistan, many from causes in which their lives could be saved. This, he said, amounted to around 1,300 child deaths every day.
He further told the House that around 11,000 mothers die annually from pregnancy-related causes, saying the figures demonstrated that the country’s healthcare problems extended far beyond a single hospital or incident.
The minister said he was not claiming that Pakistan’s healthcare system was ideal and acknowledged serious deficiencies in it.
He urged senators to use the tragedy to examine resources, hospital management, administrative practices and implementation mechanisms and formulate a practical way forward.
He said the committee should be allowed to involve experts, summon officials, examine records and investigate wider deficiencies rather than merely complete a report to meet a deadline.
Meanwhile, Senator Sherry Rehman moved a motion for setting up of a special committee of the Senate with representation from all parliamentary parties to investigate the PIMS tragedy.
Under the proposal, the special committee would submit its report within 30 days.
Mustafa Kamal assured the House of the government’s full cooperation with the parliamentary process, reiterating that no individual found responsible for the deaths would be protected or spared.
