LAHORE: The public sector hospitals across 36 districts of Punjab have a total of 411 ventilators with highest allocation of 30 in Mianwali while Lahore is shockingly listed with only nine, reveals a report filed before the Lahore High Court.

The Punjab Health Services director general submitted the report in connection with a public interest petition questioning the death of patients due to unavailability of ventilators.

According to the report, Mianwali and Hafizabad have 30 and 23 ventilators, respectively, the highest numbers among all districts.

Sialkot and Chiniot/Khanewal have the lowest number of ventilators — four and five each, respectively.

The report further stated that 330 measles cases have been reported so far this year. Last year, 4,000 cases were reported, while 6,747 cases were recorded in 2024.

In its petition, the Judicial Activism Panel contended that numerous deaths occurred due to the unavailability of ventilators in hospitals, arguing that if basic medical facilities had been available, many lives could have been saved.

The petitioner asked the court to order an inquiry into the deaths caused by measles.

Justice Malik Awais Khalid summoned the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare secretary and the specialised healthcare secretary to appear in person after Eid.

The judge also sought details regarding the number of monkey-pox patients and the measures taken to address the situation.

He remarked that the court should be informed about the world standard of ventilators’ requirement for patients and whether the availability of ventilators is mandatory in such cases.

The judge observed that the matter should be placed before the government, if there was any shortage of ventilators.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2026