Despite repeatedly hitting the soft targets such as Quetta hospital attack, a dismal state of security is observed at the busy Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital where a lone ill-equipped security guard is appointed at the entrance gate of the facility.
No state of high alert or beefed up security could be seen at main hospitals of Islamabad despite terrorists are repeatedly targeting the hospitals, parks and other public places.
“There is no beefed up security in the hospital in the wake of Quetta attack and I am the only one guarding the main entrance gate,” a private security guard deployed at the main gate of the hospital told Pakistan Today.
He said that the security of the hospital is quite poor because there are only a few untrained security guards and they have not been given any weapon to stop miscreants if they forced their way into the hospital.
He said that with such a limited security staff, it is not possible for them to manage every gate of the hospital besides keeping a strict check on “suspicious individuals”.
A senior doctor at PIMS seeking anonymity said that despite repeated terrorist incidents in various parts of the country, the PIMS management is turning a blind eye and have yet to take any step to ramp up security of the hospital.
He said that after tragic suicide attack at Lahore’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan promised to build security check posts around premises of the hospital but no progress has been made so far.
He said that no police personnel is deployed at the hospital and only six Rangers personnel could be seen patrolling in the promises, indicating the government’s non-seriousness despite looming security threats.
He said that the private security guards are ill-equipped and untrained so they are incapable of stopping the attackers from entering the hospital promises. He said that the hospital also lacks modern gadgets for keeping a vigil at different departments and Outpatient Department (OPD) wards.
Many attendants of patients at PIMS also expressed similar security concern in the hospital and appealed the quarters concerned to enhance security apparatus in the hospital.
Shahid Nawaz, a patient at the OPD, said that private security guards cannot provide proper security to the visitors and people feel insecure in the hospital.
“I am feeling insecure in the hospital, because there is always huge rush, but there is no security at all,” he maintained.
Another visitor, Rana Javed said that they have been in the hospital for last ten days but they never felt whether they are in a hospital or public park because there is no restriction or check on coming and leaving the hospital promises.
Taxis and motorbikes could be seen entering the hospital promises without checking; besides a long queue of taxes could be seen at the no-parking areas in the hospital.
Sources in the PIMS told this scribe that the hospital management requested the Islamabad police several times to beef up the security at the PIMS, but to no good.
“We are managing the security of the hospital with the meagre resources at our disposal,” they added.
After Islamabad police refused a request for security, the PIMS administration has approached a private security company to provide security guards and other necessary defensive gears, they maintained.
“The lives of over 10,000 people, including hospital employees, patients and attendants are at stake due to insufficient security,” they said.
PIMS spokesperson Dr Ayesha Ishani could not be reached despite repeated attempts.
A senior doctor said that approximately 9,000 patients visit the OPD of PIMS on daily basis so it is next to impossible to check every person entering the premises for treatment.