ISLAMABAD: Lawmak­ers belonging to the ruling coalition on Monday urged the government to carry out DNA tests of the putrefied bodies found on the rooftop of Multan’s Nishtar Hospital last week, fearing that the corpses could be of people who went missing from Sindh and the erstwhile tribal areas of the country.

The demand was first made by Kishwar Zehra of the Muttahida Qaumi Move­ment (MQM) while speaking on a point of order in the National Assembly, which was later endorsed by a number of other legislators, who called for a parliamentary probe into the matter after seeking a report from the Punjab government.

“Our party demands that DNA tests of all these bodies should be conducted. We are not yet tired of searching for our missing people. God forbid, our people can be [among them],” said Ms Zehra while exaggerating the number of bodies found, claiming 200 cadavers had been recovered from the hospital roof.

Independent MNA from North Waziristan Mohsin Dawar, while supporting Ms Zehra’s demand, claimed some 500 abandoned bodies had been found from the hospital.

The issue came up under discussion in the lower house of parliament on the day Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi suspended three doctors and three employees of Nishtar Hospital and two police officials posted in the area after receiving an initial inquiry report of the incident. Last week, videos of human bodies dumped on the Nishtar Hospital’s rooftop were widely shared on social media. According to official sources, around three dozen mutilated corpses had been found on the rooftop of the hospital’s mortuary, shocking the whole nation.

Last month, tortured bodies of four missing MQM workers had been found from various parts of interior Sindh, including Sanghar, Mirpurkhas and Umerkot. Ms Zehra had also lodged a strong protest in one of the meetings of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights. Her party also took up the matter with the Supreme Court.

As soon as Ms Zehra took her seat, Abdul Qadir Mandokhel of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) blasted the Punjab government over the negligence. The PPP MNA said there was a need for a probe into the matter, as a number of MQM people had been missing for many years.

Mr Mandokhel said there were laws and rules for the provision of unclaimed bodies to medical students. “Murderers and beasts” were sitting in the guise of doctors in Multan “who left these human remains for eagles and crows to nibble on”. He asked the federal government to call a report from the Punjab inspector general of police and present it before parliament.

Mr Dawar said they could not find a single example of such barbarism in any society. He demanded the matter be investigated and its report given to the parliamentary committee on interior to fix responsibility.

A Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl MNA from South Waziristan also expressed concern over the incident and feared that there was a need to investigate if there was anyone from the tribal areas among those whose bodies had been recovered in Multan.

Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Javed Abbasi first declared it a provincial matter, but upon protests by the members, said he would respond after seeking a report from the provincial government.

Minister of State for Interior Abdul Rehman Kanju also supported the lawmakers’ demand, stating that there was a need to carry out DNA tests of those people to identify them.

Aliya Kamran of the JUI-F, who was presiding over the sitting in the absence of both the speaker and the deputy speaker, however, gave no ruling on the matter.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2022