Pakistan PM suspends 8 officials over hospital fire
Aug 31, 2026
Islamabad [Pakistan], August 31: Pakistan's prime minister has ordered the suspension of eight officials and directed criminal proceedings against them after a fire killed 14 babies in the neonatal ward of a government-run hospital in the capital.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued the orders after an investigative committee presented its interim report on the fire at Islamabad's Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, his office said in a statement.
The blaze broke out shortly before 7am on Wednesday in the Mother and Child Healthcare Centre, sparking inside the nursery before spreading rapidly through oxygen outlets fitted at each incubator. The eight suspended officials, named in a statement from the prime minister's office, include the hospital's executive director, two joint executive directors, the head of its neonatal department, two senior doctors, a security official, and the head of the Capital Development Authority's emergency services.
Source: Qatar Tribune
