ISLAMABAD: The mortuary of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) will be extended to accommodate 22 bodies.

Leader of the house in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq on Wednesday said a summery in this regard had been moved to the prime minister.

Mr Haq said currently the facility could accommodate only six bodies.

A project to build new mortuary for 48 bodies in Pims could not be approved even after three years due to which cost of the project, which was Rs20 million has been increased many a time.

Mr Haq said the mortuary will be made for 22 bodies.

A doctor of Pims requesting not to be identified said after the Air Blue crash on July 28, 2010, 152 passengers and crew members died.

“A large number of patients belonging to Karachi and northern areas died.

Moreover, it was impossible to identify large number of bodies so Pims had no option but to put the bodies in the mortuary,” he said.

“We did not have place to put the bodies in the mortuary so we proposed that bodies should be shifted in the cold storages which are used for the storage of vegetables and fruits. Owners of the cold storages refused to put dead bodies because they were of the view that after removal of dead bodies, people may stop storing fruits in their storages,” he said.

“We have involved district administration and in the end bodies were shifted in the cold storages in sector I-10. DNA test of bodies and their relatives were taken but still there were so many parts of the bodies which could not be identified so after a few weeks unidentified bodies were buried in H-11 Graveyard,” he said.

“After the resolve of the issue, management of Pims seriously thought that new mortuary should be constructed immediately because in case of any incident in the future, mortuary will be required. Moreover almost every day an unidentified body is found which has to be kept in mortuary for many days because their relatives can not be contacted immediately,” he said.

Media coordinator of Pims Dr Waseem Khawaja said that it was appreciable that finally Pims will get the new mortuary.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2015

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