ISLAMABAD: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court (SC) requesting Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) to take a suo motu notice of [three] childbirth incidents on roads in Lahore and Faisalabad, and a death of a youth due to a strike at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
The petitioner further requested the apex court to seek a reply from the federal and provincial governments in this regard.
The head of non-government organisation (NGO), Nasir Mehmood filed a petition in the SC on Thursday, taking the plea that more than 6,000 patients are being affected by the strike at the PIMS for the last several days. The petition further stated that one youth had also died during the strike owing to a lack of medical treatment.
He stated that over 4,000 patients were waiting for their operations, besides poor patients coming from Islamabad, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit, Attock, Hazara and Jhelum are forced to undergo treatment at these doctors’ private clinics.
It was further said that, in Punjab, there were two incidents of childbirth outside the hospital premises due to the indifference of hospital administration and lack of proper facilities.
Last week, a woman gave birth to a child on the road of an underpass in the premises of the Ganga Ram Hospital, while in another incident a woman gave birth to a child in front of the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Raiwind, a few kilometre away from the residence of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The third birth took place at the sub-division hospital on the outskirts of Faisalabad when a woman was turned away from the medical facility citing a shortage of facilities and blood. Later, she gave birth inside an ambulance outside the hospital.
The PIMS employees have been on the strike since the first week of their month, demanding that the PIMS hospital should be separated from Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto University. However, following the cabinet’s approval of their demand on Wednesday, the employees of the PIMS welcomed the decision, but announced to continue their strike till its ratification from the parliament.
