— File Photo

HYDERABAD: The Sindh government has at last given its consent to sending viscera sample of Basheer Khan Qureshi to UK for chemical examination. The decision was taken on an application submitted by the widow and son of the deceased chairman of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM).

Home Minister Manzoor Wassan moved a summary to Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah after receiving the application.

The JSQM leadership believes the government-appointed medical board had issued an incomplete report of viscera.

Home Secretary Syed Sohail Akbar Shah told Dawn by phone that the party had informed the Health Department about the approval of summary by the chief minister.

He further said that the family of the deceased man would mention the name of the laboratory they intend to send viscera for examination.

Acting chairman of the party Dr Niaz Kalnai said the party want the viscera samples to remain intact and not get spoiled.

The chemical examination report issued by 15-member medical board will be sent to Larkana where police surgeon Dr Safiullah Abbasi and assistant surgeon Dr Qayyum Rajpar carried out the autopsy of JSQM leader. They issued the final post-mortem report after going through the chemical analysis report issued by the Board.

Dr Rajpar didn’t attend his cell phone when the scribe tried to seek his comments.

The board didn’t determine the cause of death but found traces of phosphorous in lungs, kidneys, stomach and liver in the viscera. A medical board member declined to establish the quantity of phosphorous present in the dead man’s body.

A professor of forensic science and toxicology said that usually more than 50mg phosphorous was considered harmful for causing toxicity which aggravates heart problem. This examination can only be carried out under a quantitative examination which was yet to be done, he said.

Quantitative examination indicates the quantity of components like sodium, potassium, calcium or phosphorous in human body and presence of any of the components beyond its limit is harmful to life and may prove fatal.

The Sindh government’s doesn’t have the facility to conduct quantitative examination.

Though, the facility is available at the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) but lacks licence from the Sindh government to carry out tests.

The test can also be performed at the laboratories of Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research or Hussain Ebrahim Jamal Research Institute of Chemistry, Karachi University.

A board member said the examination revealed three arteries of the deceased were blocked and he had also suffered a heart attack.

However, his death could be established if 75mg of phosphorous was found in his body.

Dr Kalani slammed the government for unnecessarily dragging the issue of chemical examination. Why it issued an incomplete report of chemical analysis of our leader’s viscera, he said.

Why the board issued qualitative examination report instead of finding out the quantity of phosphorous and didn’t hand over the report to heirs of Basheer Qureshi or journalists.He criticised the medical board for dealing the issue hastily.

The board was headed by Prof Umer Memon of Forensic Medicine Department of Dow University of Health Sciences. He avoided talking to Dawn by phone as someone from his side said the report had been issued and Prof Memon doesn’t want to speak further about it.