ISLAMABAD: Retired employees of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) have written a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif offering their role and contribution in the reform process for the betterment of the hospital.

According to the letter sent by Pims Retired Employees Welfare Association, the ex-employees acknowledged the PM’s concerns over the recent tragic incident at the hospital in which 14 newborn babies died. They appreciated the directions for undertaking comprehensive reforms to address institutional deficiencies, improve governance, ensure merit and justice and modernise the system of the vital national institution.

“Your concern for Pims and your initiative to constitute a Reform Committee are highly appreciated. We, the office-bearers and members of the Pims Retired Employees Welfare Association, would like to place our services and collective experience at your disposal for this important national cause. We are not outsiders looking at Pims from a distance. We are the people who came with the commissioning team of Pims, helped establish its foundations, developed its systems and served the institution through its formative and subsequent decades. We have witnessed its growth from a developing institution into one of the country’s largest and most important tertiary-care hospitals,” the letter, signed by association’s President Dr Ashok Kumar and Secretary General Haji Hanif, stated.

“Over the years, we have also witnessed the changing social environment, increasing patient load, administrative challenges, resource constraints, external pressures and other factors that have gradually affected the efficiency and institutional culture of hospital. We believe that our experience can contribute meaningfully to the reform process,” they stated.

They said the association included among its members senior-most former administrators, former executive directors, senior hospital administrators and former heads of various departments. These professionals possess decades of institutional knowledge and practical experience at Pims.

“We can assist the proposed reform committee in identifying the institutional and administrative weaknesses that have developed over time, the underlying causes of these weaknesses, practical and workable solutions, mechanisms for implementing those solutions, measures for strengthening merit, transparency, accountability and justice and reforms required to bring Pims in line with modern standards of hospital administration and patient care.”

The letter added: “We offer this experience without seeking any personal position, financial benefit, appointment or other privilege. Our only objective is to see Pims restored to the level of excellence for which it was established and for which generations of its doctors, nurses, administrators, technicians and other employees worked with dedication.”

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2026