Inquiry committee demands action against Nishtar Hospital's staff for mistreating corpses

• Govt's probe committee ends inquiry, report submitted to additional chief secretary.

• Committee directs police to bring corpses to hospital, take it back after 28 days.
• Burial of bodies to be done by police and police union council's secretary.

MULTAN: The Punjab government will likely take action against the staff of Nishtar Hospital in Multan, who were involved in receiving and leaving dead bodies on the hospital's rooftop, Geo News reported Sunday.

On October 14, multiple unidentified and decomposing bodies were found lying on the rooftop of the hospital's mortuary.

Following the incident, an investigation began following orders from the province's additional chief secretary to form a six-member committee.

The decision to pursue action against the culprits was taken during a meeting of the investigation committee, which completed its report and sent it to Punjab's additional chief secretary.

The inquiry report has recommended departmental action against those involved in receiving and leaving the corpses on the rooftop, as they should have kept the dead bodies in a room.

The report further stated that the police will be responsible for taking the abandoned corpse back 28 days after sending it to the hospital. It also stated that the police and the secretary of the police union council would jointly conduct the dead body's burial.

The hospital administration and police should coordinate the burial of dead bodies, it suggested.

Earlier, the hospital blamed police and rescue officials for decaying bodies on rooftops.

In conversation with Geo News' anchorperson Shahzeb Khanzada, Nishtar Medical University's (NMU) Head of Anatomy Department Dr Mariam Ashraf said that the rescue officials and police were to blame for the piling up of bodies in the morgue and on its roof.

Ashraf said that the medical facility could not refuse to accept the bodies as it was bound to take them in as safekeeping. "Police and rescue officials ask us to keep it in the hospital."

"The police and rescue officials do not take them back on time. We have written documents in which we have asked them to take the bodies. Since there is a lag, such things happen," the official said.

The hospital official said the bodies that the medical facility receives from police are usually decayed and they cannot be kept in the mortuary.

"As a result of their condition, maggots start eating them — and they can travel from one body to another. This is why, the bodies that are decaying are kept on the roof, where there are three rooms."

When asked about Edhi Foundation's role, she praised the non-governmental organisation, but also blamed them for not taking back the bodies.

"Edhi Foundation has not been picking up bodies from our hospital since they do not have burial space in their graveyard," she said.

"The only reason for the bodies being kept on the roof is that their influx is huge and they aren't returning back to the police stations in the numbers that they should," she said.