KARACHI: The Sindh government has inducted 22 medico-legal officers (MLOs), including 13 women, to overcome the shortage of doctors at the medico-legal sections of the city’s three major government hospitals, a senior official said on Saturday.

Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed told Dawn that the three public sector hospitals in the metropolis are the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH).

She said that the government had recently regularised the services of doctors hired during the Covid-19 pandemic and sent 22 of them to the office of the Police Surgeon Karachi as medico-legal officers in BPS-17.

She said the newly inducted MLOs, including 13 women, were being trained by her before being posted to the medico-legal sections of the three hospitals, she said.

“The new addition will greatly help us in overcoming the shortage that the office of the police surgeon has been facing for a long time,” she said.

At present, she said, 21 men and six women are working as MLOs.

The police surgeon said that her office was in discussion with the administrations of the JPMC, CHK and ASH for the use of biometric attendance system for the MLOs to ensure their presence at the places of duty.

She appreciated Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho and health secretary Rehan Baloch for “swiftly working towards the betterment of the medico-legal department” as envisaged in the Sindh Medico-legal Act 2023.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2024