LAHORE, Dec 29: Lack of facilities and cooperation among different departments is causing immense problems for people visiting health facilities for autopsy on the bodies of their dear ones in the city and elsewhere in the Punjab.

An instance surfaced lately speaks volumes for the ordeal the people have to face during the process of getting postmortem conducted on the bodies.

The body of a three-month-old baby girl shuttled for around two weeks among several hospitals and other health facilities from Mandi Bahauddin to Lahore.

Zainab was allegedly murdered by her father some days before Eidul Fitr in Mandi Bahauddin. Her family took her body to the nearest health facility for autopsy. On denial, it was taken to a Gujrat hospital from where it was sent back to the native town.

The family was again denied an autopsy on the body at the nearest hospital. They then reportedly visited several hospitals at Narowal, Sialkot, Sheikhupura and Gujranwala but found no luck. The family finally brought the body to the mortuary in Lahore on Dec 6.

The administration of the mortuary approached the health department as it did not have a jurisdiction to conduct the autopsy. On permission from the department, it performed the autopsy and the family, whose ordeal could be imagined well by the situation they faced, managed to bury the baby girl on Dec 11.

Non-availability of a lady doctor is believed to be the reason for the refusals at all the health facilities. It has been made binding by a Supreme Court decision that only lady doctors would perform the autopsy on women’s bodies.

This is not the first example of this kind. There have been protests and roadblocks in various parts of the Punjab in the past on refusal to autopsy on the women’s bodies and the male, too, due to different reasons.

“What to talk about the other parts of the province when we have only one lady doctor at the city mortuary attached to the King Edward Medical College,” Prof.(Dr) Pervaiz A. Rana, head of the forensic medicine, told Dawn.

“And there have been instances at intervals when we would have none.”

Besides, he said that, of the approved 16 strength, his department had been given only 10 male doctors. Of them, he added, six performed duty for medico-legal cases at the Mayo Hospital and the remaining four ran the autopsy side.

The professor said the health department had been requested several times to address this issue but nothing concrete had so far been done.

Absence of a lady doctor at a hospital or at police medico-legal surgeon creates more problems for rape victims and their families. Such victims from the far-flung areas have to travel for miles for their medical examination.

The only lady doctor at the city mortuary is also assigned to look into the medico-legal cases at the police medico-legal surgeon office. She can be found only during her duty hours and the female victims visiting the surgeon office other than her duty have to face problems and wait until she showed up.

Another problem the people visiting the mortuaries, especially in Lahore, face is that they don’t find a place if they want to preserve the bodies for a day or two.

Preservation capacity at the mortuary, which is 14 since 1986, is found occupied by the unclaimed bodies. These bodies found in different parts of the city are taken to the mortuary by police who would allegedly not turn up to collect them for days and in some cases for weeks.

These bodies are nothing but a fatigue for the police,” a police investigator visiting the mortuary said and added the police had to make arrangements for the burial of such bodies besides getting their pictures published in newspapers and sending their reports to various police records.

“Why don’t you mention the bribe aspect?” a mortuary official standing close to the investigator asked him and explained the police did not take interest in the unidentified bodies because they found no chance to make money, which they mint from the claimants of a body.

The city mortuary record shows one unidentified body arrives there daily on average. Thirty unidentified bodies have been taken to the mortuary by the police in November. “These are 1300 plus per year on average,” an official said.

By rules and regulations, Prof.Rana said, the mortuary is not supposed to entertain the police for storing the body even for one day. However, he said the police with internal arrangement were facilitated to keep a body in mortuary for three days to wait for its identification or any heir.

Mr.Rana pointed out the separation of watch and ward from investigation in the new police system was causing more delays in the collection of the unidentified bodies. Now, he said, the police station staff was assigned to take the body to the mortuary and the investigation staff to collect it. Once a body is dropped, there would be no one now from the investigation staff to collect it, he added.

A letter written by the outgoing city police chief, Javed Noor, to the SSP (Operation) and SSP (Investigation), states: “It may please be ensured that the police officer whether from police station or the investigation staff, who takes the body to the mortuary, remains there till examination is completed, as say the police rules,” the letter quoted the instructions given to the two SPs by the outgoing police chief.

“The investigation staff should take the initiative and try to complete all legal formalities. In any case there should not be any delay in disposing of the body and the mortuary should not be overloaded due to any slackness on the part of the police.”

Yet another problem is faced by the people when they want to opt for not getting an autopsy conducted. The police and the mortuary staff don’t allow them to take away the body without the permission of the district magistrate. “And going for a permission involves a very lengthy procedure,” the mortuary officials said.