The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) has operated under a veil of fire safety negligence since 2018. A formal audit by the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) confirms that the capital’s largest public hospital failed to implement basic fire suppression standards, leaving thousands of patients and staff at constant risk.
The MCI report points to a systemic breakdown in safety management. Fire extinguishers across the facility remain expired or improperly maintained, while emergency exits are frequently obstructed by hospital equipment or locked due to internal security concerns. For a facility that handles hundreds of trauma and emergency cases daily, the lack of a functional alarm system is the most glaring failure.
Hospital management has changed hands multiple times over the last six years, yet the safety audits gathered dust. Each administration cited budget constraints or administrative bottlenecks as reasons for the delay, but the MCI investigators found little evidence that any formal requests for safety upgrades were ever prioritized.
Dr. Arshad, a senior consultant who has worked at the facility for a decade, described the situation as “a tragedy waiting for a spark.” He noted that staff members have raised these concerns in internal meetings repeatedly, only to be met with promises of future procurement that never materialized.
The report also highlights the absence of a dedicated fire drill schedule. Nurses and junior doctors—the first responders in any ward-level emergency—admitted to investigators they had never participated in a simulated evacuation. Without a clear plan, an incident in the high-density wards could turn catastrophic within minutes.
This is not the first time safety has been questioned at PIMS. Previous inquiries into hospital infrastructure often flagged the aging electrical wiring, which remains a primary fire hazard in older wings of the building. Despite these recurring warnings, the facility continues to operate without a comprehensive safety overhaul.
The MCI has issued a final warning to the hospital administration, demanding a full compliance report within thirty days. Whether this latest administrative pressure will force the procurement of modern safety systems or simply trigger another round of bureaucratic paperwork remains the primary question for the staff left working in the facility today.
