GUJRAT: The Punjab government has not yet taken any action against the senior officials who were found guilty in the probe into cantilever collapse of the roof of the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital (ABSTH) about one-and-a-half months back.

The 10-member inquiry committee, headed by Gujranwala Commissioner Naveed Haider Shirazi, was constituted by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz after a patient died and 12 patients were injured in the incident that happened during the revamp of the hospital structure on April 24.

Official sources said the committee had fixed the responsibility of the incident on the contractor Naeemullah, Buildings Department Executive Engineer Muhammad Rauf, SDO Fawwad Muneer and Sub-Engineer Sartaash Ahmed, the then medical superintendent of ABSTH Dr Asif Mehmood, deputy MS Jawad Yousaf and Dr Iqbal Alwi, the consultant surgeon of the teaching hospital.

The committee found all aforementioned senior officers guilty of criminal negligence and recommended to the government to launch criminal and departmental proceedings against them.

Moreover, the committee recommended complete demolition of the damaged building and was asked for revamp of all the government buildings, particularly the hospitals, to be done block-wise after ensuring removal of people in the area.

The committee said the installation of solar panels at the government buildings should be done only after checking the condition of the building structures across the province as in the case of ABSTH incident, the roof was loaded with the solar plates and structure.

It is learnt that the committee had completed its findings unanimously and the report was submitted to the CM by the commissioner by the end of April. However, no punitive action has so far been taken by the authorities. The ABSTN MS and officials of buildings department were removed from their posts within 24 hours of the incident.

The hospital administration and the buildings department have demolished the whole structure of the damaged building of the medical and surgical wards while portion of old building that being revamped has been vacated to avoid any tragic incident in the future.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2024