File Photo. Asif Hassan—AFP
The Punjab government on Wednesday said that 66 unclaimed bodies that had been stored on the roof of Multan’s Nishtar Hospital had been buried with the cooperation of the Edhi Foundation after the completion of legal formalities.
Last week, harrowing videos of bodies in an advanced state of decay on the roof of the Nishtar Hospital went viral on social media, raising questions about the identities of the deceased, as well as the mortuary facilities at the government-run hospital. The matter came to light after Adviser to the C.M. Chaudhry Zaman Gujjar visited the hospital, discovered the bodies, and directed authorities concerned to take action against officials involved in mishandling the unclaimed dead.
Since the discovery of the bodies, several nationalist groups—particularly from Balochistan—have raised concerns about their identities, with a senior politician questioning if they could be of missing persons from the restive province. In the past, the bodies of missing persons have been similarly found dumped in remote areas of the province.
Balochistan National Party-Mengal leader Akhtar Mengal, speaking on a point of order in the National Assembly earlier this week, had raised the matter, demanding the formation of a judicial commission headed by a senior judge of the superior judiciary to investigate the incident. He had said authorities should conduct DNA tests of all the bodies to confirm that they did not belong to missing persons.
His call was taken up by the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) on Wednesday, which appealed to the Supreme Court to take notice of the tragedy and ensure justice for the deceased. Addressing a press conference, VBMP Chairman Nasarullah Baloch recalled that a 2015 ruling of the apex court had ordered provincial governments to register FIRs, conduct DNA tests, and investigate the reason of death for any mutilated bodies that were recovered by police. This order, he stressed, had never been implemented.
Rejecting the Punjab government’s probe, which has blamed hospital staff and advised against them, Baloch said only an independent inquiry from the apex court would be acceptable.
Responding to Mengal’s concerns, Adviser to the C.M. Gujjar told a press conference in Multan that while the BNP leader was “respected” by the provincial government, his concerns were not valid. “The Nishtar Medical Health University vice chancellor and Nishtar administration have a complete record of abandoned bodies and none of them is a missing person,” he claimed.