KARACHI, April 20: Male staff in mortuaries of government-run hospitals continues to conduct post-mortems or remain present during the autopsy of women in hospitals of the metropolis, in clear violation of the Supreme Court’s directives.

The Supreme Court ruling on March 20, 1996, clearly states that autopsy of all women victims should be performed by female doctors and no male should be present during this process.

The federal Health Ministry, after the ruling, issued directives in 1996 to all provincial governments that in future, all post-mortems of women should be performed by women doctors. No male should be present during the process and the skull, if required to be opened, should be opened by Muslim male/female members of the paramedical staff.

However, the Sindh Health Department is yet to comply with the directives as post-mortems on women bodies are still conducted by male paramedical staff due to the non-availability of female staff for mortuaries. At the morgue of Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC), there is no female staff.

Karachi Police Surgeon Bashir Sheikh said that there were six female MLOs (medico-legal officers) assigned in Civil Hospital (CHK), JPMC and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, and they were bound to be present round-the-clock.

He said in addition to this, lady MLOs were also in six other hospitals in control of the Health Department including Saudabad, Lyari, Liaquatabad, New Karachi and Sindh Government Qatar Hospital, Orangi, but were not present all the time.

According to sources, women MLOs are particularly not willing to perform autopsies, especially at night. This has caused male MLOs to conduct post-mortems in some cases.

Officials at JPMC said that they did not have the female staff to ensure compliance of the Supreme Court’s directives, while the number of female MLOs was also insufficient.

The situation in JPMC morgue is also quite alarming as there are no medico-legal facilities, along with a lack forensic medicine to conduct autopsies. The conditions of the morgue are also unsanitary.

Admitting the absence of female staff in mortuaries, Sindh Public Health Secretary Captain Abdul Majid said that in CHK mortuary, female paramedics were hired on UFC (Uniting for Consensus) basis by the hospital for post-mortem purposes.

Dr Shakil, Additional Health Secretary, said that a meeting in this regard was held with police surgeons and other stakeholders to overcome the problem.

The Pakistan Medical Association, in a recently released report, said that the Supreme Court’s decision regarding post-mortem of females needs immediate attention as a large number of women doctors are neither presently working nor willing to work in the medico-legal department of government hospitals.—PPI