ISLAMABAD: A visibly disturbed Supreme Court bench constituted a special committee on Tuesday to suggest composition of an inquiry team for identifying negligence on part of the police and private hospitals in dealing with emergency situations when the mother of a 10-year-old girl narrated horrendous details about how private hospitals and police reacted to the Aug 13 incident.

Ten-year-old Amal Umer, who was sitting along with her parents in their car, died after she was hit by a bullet fired by a policeman in the Defence area during an alleged shootout with street criminals.

The committee consisting of Advocate General Sindh Salman Talibuddin, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Sardar Latif Khosa, Faisal Siddiqui and Umaima Mansoor will also suggest the composition of the inquiry team and terms of reference to be followed by the team.

The court also hints at ordering an investigation through IB

A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar that had taken up a suo motu case on the tragic murder of Amal also suggested parameters that the committee should follow like developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for private medical institutions so that the kind of criminal negligence they displayed while treating the injured Amal should not be repeated.

Moreover, the committee should also identify specific lapses on part of the hospitals and the police.

The court also noted lack of responsibility shown by the owners of the National Medical Centre (NMC) as they did not turn up in court and sent one of their employees.

The court also dropped hints to order an investigation through civil intelligence agencies, like the Intelligence Bureau (IB). The owner is required to show attendance when the case will be taken up again on Thursday (tomorrow).

Referring to the response shown by the hospital, the chief justice asked, should such hospitals be allowed to function that did not even do their basic medical duty and also observed that no compensation can bring the child back.

During the proceedings, the AG Sindh expressed regrets on part of the police with the parents of the deceased girl and assured the court that the provincial government was amending the Sindh Injured Persons (Medical Aid) Act 2014 for bringing private hospitals in addition to the public hospitals to provide immediate medical attention to injured persons without a delay and on a priority basis.

The chief justice regretted that the private hospitals had become butcher shops. He said that the court wanted to hear the parents but they sometimes became emotional.

Amal’s mother Beenish while narrating the details clarified that she did not come for any compensation but wanted to see that no mother should undergo the same experience like hers.

She regretted that the doctors of the hospitals should have told her that her daughter was in a critical condition so that the time she wasted while running from pillar to post in arranging medical attention could have been spent with her daughter who was slipping away. Neither any oxygen, blood or even first aid was provided by the hospital, she regretted.

She was told by the administrators of the private hospital, which lacked facilities like ventilator or ambulance, to take the patient to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre or the Aga Khan University Hospital and when she tried to arrange for a private ambulance she was asked to arrange for the bed in the hospital first then ambulance facility will be provided.

About the police, she said it was the bullet of an AK-47 assault rifle that killed her daughter. She wondered about police carrying lethal weapons asking whether “we were living in a war zone like Kabul, Palestine or Syria”.

She asked the court to bring reforms in the institutions by holding accountable those responsible.

The chief justice highlighted the need for proper training to police to use lethal weapons like sub-machine guns and regretted that even the hospital declined to provide Ambu-bag needed for artificial resuscitation for shifting the patient to other medical facilities.

Advocate Faisal Siddiqui, who represented the parents, stressed upon the need of bringing reforms in the police by discouraging police culture.

He added since the police had showed negligence therefore some senior police officer should accept responsibility for the slackness shown.

It was the job of the police to eradicate street crime but they should be inculcated with some training for proper handling of heavy lethal weapons, he said, highlighting the need of SoPs for the private hospitals.

A representative of the police told the court that the CCTV footage showed that the police returned fire when fired upon by the robbers.

Umer Adil — the girl’s father — said his car was at a distance of 30 to 50 feet from the police but received a number of bullets when the distance between police and the robber was just five feet.

Latif Khosa regretted that in countries like Pakistan the victims had to do everything while police do simple paperwork.

During the hearing, the chief justice also took to task the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and regretted that we were told that it has become a model province but when he went to Chitral, hospitals were cleaned and doctors were asked to be present in the hospitals two days before his visit.

The court also regretted that the board of directors of different hospitals dissolved on the direction of the court had been created again.

Suspect held

The Karachi police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested a suspect who managed to escape after his accomplice and the 10-year-old Amal died of police firing on the night of Aug 13 in Defence.

SSP investigation (South) Khalid Mustafa Korai said the suspect was identified as Khalid and he was arrested in a raid conducted on a house within the remit of the Artillery Maidan police station.

He said that his accomplice killed by the police was also identified as Shahzad alias Shan.

He said the suspect had confessed to have committed at least five robberies on the night of Aug 13 before he and his aide were spotted by the police.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2018