LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has ordered action under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability (Amendment) Act against three senior doctors and a dispenser of the Narowal District Headquarters Hospital for allegedly spoiling the “only physical evidence” against the criminals who had shot at and injured former interior minister and PML-N’s senior leader Ahsan Iqbal in May 2018.

Those held guilty of the charges include the hospital’s District Medico-Legal Officer Dr Khalid Mahmood Ashraf (BS-20), Medical Superintendent Dr Mohammad Younis (BS-19), Narowal District Health Authority Chief Executive Officer Dr Mohammad Aslam Chaudhry and Dispenser Zaheer Khan.

The chief minister also appointed former Punjab Prisons IG Farooq Nazir as head of an inquiry against the “guilty officers” following the framing of charges against them in the initial probe.

A notification in this regard has been issued by the Primary and Secondary Health Department Punjab. (A copy of the report is also available with Dawn).

An official privy to the information said the spoiling of the physical evidence weakened the case of the former interior minister, providing major relief to the accused persons and allowing them an opportunity to escape punishment in a court of law.

The PML-N top leader had narrowly escaped an attempt on his life when he was shot at after a political rally in his hometown of Narowal on May 6, Sunday evening, during his election campaign. He had suffered a bullet injury to his arm and underwent treatment at the local DHQ hospital.

“On May 18, 2018, when [the] bloodstained clothes of injured person Mr Ahsan lqbal were collected by the Investigation Officer of the case from DHQ Hospital, Narowal, the right arm of [the] “Qameez” was found missing” (sic), reads the report.

The prime allegation levelled against all the four accused persons working at the health facilities of Norowal later found true during the inquiry process.

“The arm of “Qameez” (that) contained [the] bullet shot was very important evidence in this case which has been lost/ disappeared due to negligence of the hospital staff/administration,” the charge sheet issued by the inquiry officer adds.

While addressing the district medico-legal officer (DMLO) of the DHQ hospital, the inquiry report stated that as a principle all matters of medico-legal cases were brought into his knowledge before issuance of the final result, but he took the subject matter casually and neither handled the case according to the SOPs and protocols of medico-legal examination, nor supervised the issue himself.

“Being the administrative head you did not take action regarding the loss of a missing piece of the right arm of the shirt of the injured person.

“You did not bother to take action in writing against the duty doctor and dispenser as it was the duty of the administrative head to appoint a trained person for medico-legal examination,” reads the charge sheet against the hospital’s medical superintendent.

The charge sheet further stated that being CEO of the health authority, Mr Aslam Chaudhry was supposed to supervise the overall incident, but he neither took any action against the hospital staff for their negligence, nor arranged any training/refresher training for the staff involved in the medico-legal work.

Similarly, it stated that the dispenser was handed over the piece of the right sleeve of Mr Iqbal's shirt by the duty doctor but he did not keep it safe and behaved in a very casual way.

“It was your responsibility being on duty as dispenser to keep it in safe custody and then return it to the duty doctor after proper signing and sealing,” reads the report while addressing the dispenser.

All the accused persons have been directed to submit their written defence to the inquiry officer within seven days of the receipt of the order.

“If they fail to submit their written defence within the stipulated period, it shall be presumed that either they have no defence to offer or they have declined to offer the same and have accepted the charges,” reads the notification.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2019