Failure to act: CMO sacked for refusing to conduct post-mortem

Officer says it is not his responsibility to perform such tasks

ABBOTABAD: A casualty medical officer (CMO) of Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH) was sacked for allegedly refusing to conduct a post-mortem.

Officials privy to the development told The Express Tribune on Tuesday, Basharat Khan, a resident of Nawanshehr, was shot dead and his body was brought to ATH for an autopsy. Dr Amjad, the CMO on duty, refused to conduct a post-mortem and asked the staff to call the medico-legal officer (MLO) for the purpose.

Since no one was willing to conduct the post-mortem, the deceased’s family was left with no choice but to take the body to the Karakoram Highway and protest. The road was blocked for traffic for several hours.

Reacting to the protest, the ATH hospital director sacked the CMO and the post-mortem was finally conducted by the MLO.

When contacted, Dr Major (retd) Siddique Rehman confirmed the incident. He added the CMO was bound to conduct a post-mortem. However, Dr Amjad did not fulfil his responsibilities. According to Rehman, the officer not only refused to conduct the post-mortem, but also switched off his mobile phone. Meanwhile, Dr Amjad defended his position by saying that conducting autopsies was the duty of MLOs and not a CMO or MO.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2016.