Pregnant woman goes ‘missing’ from JPMC

Case registered, hospital says woman never checked in

KARACHI:

The Saddar police on Friday registered a kidnapping case on the complaint of the husband of a pregnant woman who had mysteriously disappeared from the gyneacology ward of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) a day earlier.

The case has been filed under Section 496-A (enticing or taking away or detaining with criminal intent a woman) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The complainant Waseem, a resident of Korangi's Zaman Town, told police that he had taken his pregnant wife, 24-year-old Hijab Fatima, to a hospital in the area after she experienced labour pain on Wednesday. The doctor on duty advised the couple to go to JPMC. Fatima had delivered her first baby, now four, at the JPMC and they would have her medical history.

They visited JPMC the same day, where the doctor examined her and told her to come the next day. On Thursday, the couple and Waseem's two sisters-in-law went to the hospital early morning. After having lunch, Hijab Fatima went into the gynaecology ward a little before 1pm. The family waited outside till 4pm but she never returned.

When they went inside to inquire, the staff told them no patient had been admitted with that name.

"I fear someone has tricked my wife and abducted her," he said in the complaint.

The family said that neither the hospital staff nor the police were helpful after the woman went missing on Thursday.

He said that when he went to the police station to file the case, the duty officer told him that the Station House Officer (SHO) was unavailable. Waseem said the policeman told him to come and file his complaint the next morning (Friday). He added that his complaint was only entertained after he spoke to a senior police officer on the phone.

Meanwhile, the person in-charge of the night shift of the gynaecology ward at the hospital told The Express Tribune that they had checked the entire ward except for the rooms of doctors which are closed but they did not find the woman.

Police confirmed the hospital's version that no woman with that name was admitted to the hospital. On the CCTV footage, he said the police was reviewing it.

The missing woman and her family are the residents of Zaman Town, Korangi. The couple has a four-year-old son.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2023.