{"id":12771,"date":"2026-08-27T09:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T09:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=12771"},"modified":"2026-08-27T09:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T09:32:11","slug":"ppp-demands-resignation-of-federal-health-minister-over-pims-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=12771","title":{"rendered":"PPP Demands Resignation\u00a0of Federal Health\u00a0Minister\u00a0Over PIMS Tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ISLAMABAD \u2014 The Pakistan&nbsp;Peoples Party (PPP) has demanded the&nbsp;resignation of Federal&nbsp;Health Minister Mustafa&nbsp;Kamal over the&nbsp;deaths of 14&nbsp;newborn babies in&nbsp;a fire at&nbsp;PIMS Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PPP Chairman Bilawal&nbsp;Bhutto Zardari expressed&nbsp;deep sorrow over&nbsp;the tragedy and&nbsp;described the deaths&nbsp;of the 14&nbsp;newborns as one&nbsp;of the worst&nbsp;tragedies in human&nbsp;history. He said&nbsp;the hopes of&nbsp;families were extinguished&nbsp;just as their&nbsp;children\u2019s lives had&nbsp;begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bilawal said the&nbsp;fathers of the&nbsp;deceased babies were&nbsp;demanding justice, while&nbsp;mothers did not&nbsp;carry their children&nbsp;for nine months&nbsp;only for them&nbsp;to become victims&nbsp;of negligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PPP leader and&nbsp;Senator Sherry Rehman&nbsp;also visited PIMS&nbsp;and spoke to&nbsp;the media about&nbsp;the incident. She&nbsp;alleged that there&nbsp;was no water&nbsp;in the fire&nbsp;tanks, doctors were&nbsp;not present and&nbsp;some gates were&nbsp;closed at the&nbsp;time of the&nbsp;tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sherry Rehman said&nbsp;the PPP had&nbsp;not come to&nbsp;PIMS to engage&nbsp;in politics, but&nbsp;it was the&nbsp;responsibility of political&nbsp;leaders to ask&nbsp;questions about the&nbsp;incident and determine&nbsp;who was responsible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She said the&nbsp;responsible minister should&nbsp;voluntarily resign following&nbsp;such a serious&nbsp;incident. According to&nbsp;her, the circumstances&nbsp;surrounding the fire&nbsp;require accountability&nbsp;and a clear&nbsp;explanation from the&nbsp;relevant authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PPP leader Nayyar&nbsp;Bukhari also criticized&nbsp;the government\u2019s response. He said removing&nbsp;one secretary from&nbsp;office would not&nbsp;be enough to&nbsp;address the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bukhari questioned the&nbsp;ability of the&nbsp;federal health ministry&nbsp;to manage the&nbsp;country\u2019s major hospitals, saying that if&nbsp;the ministry could&nbsp;not properly manage&nbsp;two hospitals, questions&nbsp;could be raised&nbsp;about its ability&nbsp;to oversee healthcare&nbsp;facilities across the&nbsp;country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He demanded that&nbsp;the Ministry of&nbsp;National Health Services&nbsp;be held accountable&nbsp;for the incident. He said the&nbsp;ministry should have&nbsp;been monitoring the&nbsp;performance of PIMS&nbsp;administration and ensuring&nbsp;that necessary safety&nbsp;arrangements were in&nbsp;place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sindh government spokesperson&nbsp;Sadia Javed also&nbsp;criticized the federal&nbsp;government over the&nbsp;tragedy. She said&nbsp;the deaths of&nbsp;14 innocent babies&nbsp;at PIMS should&nbsp;not be treated&nbsp;as merely an&nbsp;accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Sadia&nbsp;Javed, the incident&nbsp;represented a serious&nbsp;failure of the&nbsp;federal healthcare system&nbsp;and reflected administrative&nbsp;negligence. She said&nbsp;the federal health&nbsp;minister should accept&nbsp;responsibility for the&nbsp;failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The PPP\u2019s demands&nbsp;come after a&nbsp;fire broke out&nbsp;in the nursery&nbsp;of PIMS Hospital\u2019s&nbsp;gynecology ward, killing&nbsp;14 newborn babies. Hospital authorities said&nbsp;15 babies were&nbsp;present in&nbsp;the nursery when&nbsp;the fire started, while only one&nbsp;baby was reportedly&nbsp;rescued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tragedy has&nbsp;raised serious questions&nbsp;about fire safety&nbsp;arrangements, emergency&nbsp;exits, firefighting equipment, staff&nbsp;availability and the&nbsp;overall management of&nbsp;the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A report by&nbsp;the Capital Development&nbsp;Authority\u2019s Fire Brigade&nbsp;Department has also&nbsp;reportedly identified shortcomings&nbsp;in fire prevention&nbsp;and arrangements for&nbsp;protecting human&nbsp;lives at PIMS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report highlighted&nbsp;problems with emergency&nbsp;exits and evacuation&nbsp;routes and stated&nbsp;that obstacles created&nbsp;difficulties during the&nbsp;firefighting operation.&nbsp;Rescue sources also&nbsp;reported issues involving&nbsp;water supplies, fire&nbsp;hoses and locked&nbsp;emergency exits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The PPP has&nbsp;used these reported&nbsp;deficiencies to demand&nbsp;accountability from the&nbsp;federal health authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The controversy is&nbsp;likely to continue&nbsp;as investigations into&nbsp;the incident proceed. Families of the&nbsp;deceased newborns are&nbsp;seeking answers about&nbsp;how the fire&nbsp;occurred and whether&nbsp;better safety arrangements&nbsp;could have prevented&nbsp;the loss of&nbsp;life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The PPP&nbsp;has made clear&nbsp;that it believes&nbsp;responsibility should extend&nbsp;beyond individual hospital&nbsp;officials. Its leaders&nbsp;are calling for&nbsp;accountability at the&nbsp;level of the&nbsp;federal health ministry&nbsp;and demanding that&nbsp;the health minister&nbsp;accept responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The government will&nbsp;now face pressure&nbsp;to provide a&nbsp;detailed explanation of&nbsp;the hospital\u2019s fire&nbsp;safety arrangements and&nbsp;the steps taken&nbsp;to prevent such&nbsp;incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tragedy has&nbsp;also highlighted the&nbsp;need for stronger&nbsp;fire safety standards&nbsp;in hospitals across&nbsp;Pakistan. Properly functioning&nbsp;fire alarms, accessible&nbsp;emergency exits, trained&nbsp;staff, firefighting equipment&nbsp;and regular safety&nbsp;drills are essential&nbsp;for&nbsp;protecting vulnerable patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the families&nbsp;who lost their&nbsp;newborn children, however, the immediate priority&nbsp;remains justice and&nbsp;accountability. The PPP&nbsp;has called for&nbsp;those responsible to&nbsp;be&nbsp;identified and for&nbsp;meaningful action to&nbsp;be taken rather&nbsp;than limiting the&nbsp;response to the&nbsp;removal of a&nbsp;single official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The demand for&nbsp;Mustafa Kamal\u2019s resignation&nbsp;has therefore added&nbsp;a political dimension&nbsp;to an&nbsp;already serious national&nbsp;tragedy. The final&nbsp;responsibility for the&nbsp;incident will depend&nbsp;on the findings&nbsp;of official investigations&nbsp;and whether negligence&nbsp;or administrative failures&nbsp;are established.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD \u2014 The Pakistan&nbsp;Peoples Party (PPP) has demanded the&nbsp;resignation of Federal&nbsp;Health Minister Mustafa&nbsp;Kamal over the&nbsp;deaths of 14&nbsp;newborn babies in&nbsp;a fire at&nbsp;PIMS Hospital. PPP Chairman Bilawal&nbsp;Bhutto..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/11111-2026-08-27T143152.043.png",800,927,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/11111-2026-08-27T143152.043-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/11111-2026-08-27T143152.043-259x300.png",259,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/11111-2026-08-27T143152.043-768x890.png",768,890,true],"large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/11111-2026-08-27T143152.043.png",800,927,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/11111-2026-08-27T143152.043.png",800,927,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/11111-2026-08-27T143152.043.png",800,927,false]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?cat=3\" rel=\"category\">Pakistan<\/a>","tag_info":"Pakistan","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12773,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12771\/revisions\/12773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}