KARACHI, Sept 29: Lack of coordination between the medicolegal department of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and its various departments causes a great deal of anguish to patients.

According to sources, all too often the JPMC medicolegal department asks other departments for their expert opinion to ascertain whether the injury that a person is complaining about is grievous or not. They point out that if there is no coordination between the two departments, a complainant has to do a lot of running around. Besides, he fails to obtain a medicolegal report on the strength of which he can prove either his innocence or the guilt of another party.

The sources cite a case in which a 25-year-old boy was allegedly tortured by some police officials of the Gulshan police station. “A boy named Nazimuddin was illegally detained by the police for 30 hours at the Gulshan police station. The boy was brutally tortured by the police on Sept 6. He was released on Sept 7 only when Gulshan’s town police officer, Dr Sanaullah Abbasi, intervened. On Sept 14 the Gulshan police registered a report (6556/02) against those police officials who had been accused of torturing the boy.”

They add that the medicolegal officer of the JPMC, Dr Yahya Aziz, examined the boy, Nazimuddin, who complained of anxiety, headache and numbness. “The medicolegal officer referred the case to the neurology department to find out if the boy’s complaint was right or wrong. He made out a reference letter which was duly signed by the medicolegal officer.”

The sources say that the neurology department made the boy undergo a few expensive tests but when it came to writing a definitive report, they shillyshallied. “After a lot of dithering the head of the neurology department, Dr Shaukat Ali, asked his junior, Dr Wasim, to write a report and put a stamp saying ‘not for legal purpose’.”

The report says: “No neurological deficit is noted. CT scan done at JPMC showed no abnormality. Case is referred to psychiatry department for the assessment of anxiety.”

The sources wonder how the neurology department can issue a report saying ‘not for legal purpose’ when it has been expressly asked by the medicolegal department to issue a report which will be used in a court of law.

The head of the Sindh Medical College forensic department, Dr Ghulam Ali, told Dawn that quite often various departments of the JPMC avoided issuing reports to the medicolegal department because they were afraid of going to courts.