PESHAWAR, Feb 7: The maternal grandfather of an orphan girl has charged an orthopaedic surgeon with killing his granddaughter during an operation due to overdose of anaesthesia, and has asked the provincial government to take action.

Speaking at a news conference here at the Press Club on Thursday, Haji Sher Azam Khan, belonging to Saleh Khana village of Nowshera district, said that his granddaughter, Zainab Bibi was suffering from knee cancer and they were referred to Dr Manzoor by another doctor, Dr Murad Ali.

Haji Sultan Mohammad Shah, an elder of the same village, accompanied Mr Khan and said the tragedy had occurred on Jan 22 and they were late in raising the issue as the said doctor had not been giving them the medical record of the deceased.

He said the deceased was suffering from cancer and remained under treatment at Irnum hospital. He said that on numerous occasions they had also visited Dr Murad of the said hospital at his private clinic.

Mr Shah said that about Rs400,000 was spent on the treatment of his granddaughter and finally when she was recovering the doctor suggested that a minor operation would be conducted by an orthopaedic surgeon.

For that purpose, he said, they were referred to Dr Manzoor, a former principal of Khyber Medical College running a hospital near Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), who operated on the girl, aged 14.

The old man said that after the operation they were informed that the deceased would be shifted to near by KTH as she had suffered a cardiac arrest.

He alleged that the ambulance was about two hours late and by the time the girl was taken to KTH from the private hospital she was dead.

They said the private hospital lacked proper infrastructure for conducting operations. They asked the government to conduct an inquiry and take legal action in the matter.