ISLAMABAD: A committee formed to probe the fire at Pims that killed 14 babies said the deadly blaze was most likely caused by a localised electrical failure, while also calling out the hospital management for systemic and institutional failure that turned the fire into a catastrophe.
The committee, headed by former interior secretary Shahid Khan, said in its 43-page report that abnormal localised electrical heating — possibly from excessive current, a high-resistance connection or another localised defect — most probably caused insulation failure and ignition of nearby combustible material.
“The strongest technical evidence, from the National Forensics Agency, identifies the AC Unit No. 2 electrical supply cable near/over AC Unit No. 1 as the most probable point of ignition,” it said. The evidence did not establish arson, multiple ignition points, an external fault of the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco), a pre-fire oxygen leak, or an incubator or warmer as the source, the committee determined.
Committee notes evidence warrants criminal investigation
Evidence warranted a focused criminal investigation into possible culpable electrical installation or maintenance failure relating to AC 2, obstruction of a mandatory emergency route, culpable non-action despite specific prior warning, and any proved culpable delay in external emergency notification, the committee determined. “Responsibility must be traced to the persons who designed, installed, altered, inspected, maintained, supervised or certified the implicated circuit,” it maintained.
The report said the record disclosed “prima facie grounds for administrative and E&D proceedings against officers where a defined duty, prior knowledge or foreseeability, authority and corresponding act or omission indicate negligence, inefficiency, misconduct, unauthorised absence, failure of supervision or non-performance of assigned safety responsibilities”. It stressed that final guilt must be determined through due process.
The report, however, pointed out a “history of known but incompletely closed risks”, citing prior warnings, such as the fire at the nursing hostel in Pims. “Yet those warnings had not been converted into a comprehensive, time-bound and independently verified corrective programme before the nursery fire,” the report regretted.
It stressed that Pims and its “senior management bear the principal institutional responsibility for failing to convert known risks, prior warnings and assigned duties into an effective safety system”. “The electrical spark explains how the fire began; the institutional system explains why it became a catastrophe.”
‘Don’t blame responders’
The report said there was no adequately documented, approved, trained and rehearsed nursery-specific fire and neonatal evacuation SOP, nor was a functional automatic smoke detection, alarm or sprinkler system shown to be serving the affected area.
It emphasised that frontline responders whose rescue conduct had been “objectively established should not be blamed merely because the outcome was catastrophic”. “The principal institutional failure was the absence of an integrated patient safety system... resulting in... improvised response and catastrophic consequences,” the report read.
While the hospital faced genuine staffing and resource constraints, the record did not establish that any specific nursery fire safety or AC 2 electrical safety proposal was rejected solely for lack of funds. “Resource constraint, therefore, does not by itself excuse the identified deficiencies,” the report said.
The panel recommended immediate fire, life safety and electrical audits, as well as ensuring functioning detection, alarm, suppression and egress (exit) systems. It also called for dedicated neonatal evacuation SOPs, a “closed-loop compliance system” and a permanent multidisciplinary Hospital Safety and Vigilance Committee with authority to track deficiencies to verified closure. The panel further recommended considering a time-bound independent Safety and Governance Oversight Board to monitor audits and report to the competent federal authority.
It recommended Pims be restructured and that experienced professionals be put in charge.
Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2026
