Death of four infants: Who’s to blame?

3
149

At least four minor children, including a girl, died at the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) Friday due to unavailability of nurses and other paramedical staff, as they were busy protesting. The working of state-run hospitals was adversely affected due to the strike, and the patients suffered in the absence of the supporting staff at the hospitals.
The children that died Friday included seven-month-old Zainab from Sukkur, four-month-old Muzammil, one-year-old Muhammad Sami from Karachi, and a six-month-old boy from Karachi. NICH Director Syed Jamal Raza said the hospital has stopped admitting new child patients. Raza said, “These children came to the hospital in critical condition and I don’t think they died due to the protest.”
Late Thursday evening, the health minister visited the protest camp outside the Karachi Press Club and assured the demonstrators that their demands have been accepted and the final announcement would be made by the chief minister (CM) on Saturday. However, the nurses termed the health minister’s assurance eyewash and resolved to continue their strike until the CM’s announcement.
Provincial Nurses Association Treasurer Farhat Naz said the provincial government had accepted all the demands of the doctors on March 15 and issued the notification immediately, but the health minister seeks two days’ time for making the final announcement. She said she smelled a conspiracy in the minister’s assurance. She also said the minister misbehaved with some of the nurses when he arrived at their protest camp. He also gave subtle threats to some of the nurses, she added. Naz said the entire world has witnessed the highhandedness of the police, as the nurses were not allowed entering the red zone and were tear-gassed and water-cannoned. Pakistan Paramedical Staff Association Karachi President Nazir Abbasi said the health minister has refused accepting their demands. “Two months ago, we had ended our protest after the health minister’s assurance that our demands would be accepted. However, the committee formed to resolve our issues was disbanded just four days later and our demands were also rejected,” he added.

3 COMMENTS

  1. The Prime Minister of Pakistan is responsible for the killing of these innocent babies.as in his very first address to the nation,he restored the activities of UNIONS in the country.Now the whole country is facing these sufferings and PM Gilani be held responsible for these killings.the nurses who ignored the ailing patients must be hanged publicly,so that no one dares to go on strike.The nursing and doctor is a very respectable jobs,but they are not allowed to play with the lives of people.it is humbly requested that all the activities of Uions must be banned and declare these services as ESSENTIAL SERVICES.what was going on in Punjab,the central ministers made joke of Punjab and now in Karachi,but we do not laugh,but to express our sorrow on these incidents and appeal to the Central Government to take concrete steps so that these incidents should not occured again and again.Pakistan is a very poor and unerdevepled country and can not bear these loses at any shape.

    the Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan is kindly requested to take suo moto notices and ban all the activities of all the Uions in the country with immediate effect.

Comments are closed.