Official removed for issuing false autopsy report

The provincial health department on Friday has transferred the Additional Director Communicable Disease Control (CDC) Dr Ershad Kazmi and directed him to report to the department. A notification in this regard has been issued, copy of which has been obtained by The Express Tribune.

Sources said that Dr Kazmi has been transferred after his licence was suspended for five years by the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) on account of preparing false post-mortem report of a deceased Faisal Ramzan Mughari, from Jacobabad.

Mugheri, 29, died mysteriously on September 13, 2020 in Jacobabad. On the order of the Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate Jacobabad, the Director General Health, Sindh, constituted a 'special medical board' which undertook the process of exhumation and the post-mortem of the deceased on October 16, 2020.

On December 14, 2020, the medical board issued a final post-mortem report, citing that the deceased was exposed to excessive alcohol and cannabis, which was the cause of death.

The report was challenged in three courts, including Sindh High Court (SHC) Larkana batch but was dismissed.

In the SHC verdict, the copy available with The Express Tribune, it was stated: "It appears that the petitioner has no locus standing in any event. We see no reason to interfere with the post-mortem carried out by the eminent doctors."

On November 21 last year, the PMC in its verdict suspended the licences of Dr Ershad Kazmi (BPS 20), Dr Inyatullah Magsi (BPS 19), Dr Aman Ullah Bhutto (BPS 19) and Police Surgeon Dr Shamsuddin Khoso (BPS 19) for five years.

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