Health minister Mustafa Kamal vows accountability over Pims fire

Health Minister Mustafa Kamal says those responsible for the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) fire that killed 14 infants would face accountability, stressing that the tragedy must trigger broader reforms in the country’s health sector.

Speaking in the Senate, Kamal said the government would not protect anyone found responsible for the incident and that accountability would extend to all those involved.

He said the deaths of the infants could not be treated as a tragedy that would remain in public memory for only a few days, calling for a serious effort to determine what went wrong and prevent similar incidents.

The minister also cautioned against attempts to bury the matter and urged parliamentarians to work together to identify weaknesses in the health system and recommend corrective measures.
Kamal said the loss of children carried a profound moral responsibility for those in positions of authority, adding that government offices and positions were insignificant compared with the duty to protect human lives.

Expressing his grief over the incident, he said no explanation could justify what had happened and offered himself for scrutiny as part of the accountability process. He called for a comprehensive investigation, saying any committee constituted to probe the fire should not be restricted by a fixed deadline and should remain operational until all relevant aspects of the incident had been examined.

Kamal said the investigation could reveal problems extending beyond the Pims fire, pointing to what he described as deeper weaknesses within the health sector.

He said the country’s healthcare system was far from satisfactory and highlighted the scale of preventable child deaths, claiming that around 400,000 children between the ages of one and five die every year, or roughly 1,300 a day.