LAHORE:
The Lahore High Court on Monday granted interim bail for five days to four doctors who are accused of murder in connection with the death of a child at Mayo Hospital during the recent strike by the Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan issued this order while hearing a petition seeking the quashment of the FIR registered under Section 302 (murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code against eight doctors. In the FIR, they are accused of pulling out a drip being administered to the child, Fahad, at Mayo Hospital that allegedly resulted in his death.
The judge directed YDA Mayo Hospital President Dr Matloob Ahmad, YDA Punjab Joint Secretary Dr Usmanul Haq, YDA Mayo Hospital General Secretary Dr Muhammad Tajammul and Dr Muhammad Adil Mansoor Bajwa to submit Rs100,000 each to the LHC deputy registrar (judicial) to secure their release from jail until the next hearing on July 16. He also restricted the four doctors from participating in agitation or a strike and ordered them to join the police investigation.
The hearing on Monday continued well into the afternoon in a courtroom packed with YDA supporters. Lawyer Shamimur Rehman Malik, representing Muhammad Afzal, the father of the dead child, said at the onset of proceedings that the heavy presence of doctors inside and outside the court was meant to intimidate him and his client.
Malik pointed out that the court had granted him no time to prepare the case and he was extending his arguments only in pursuance of the court’s order. He said his client was being discriminated against as it was normal practice to first issue notices when a petition was filed. He said due process of the law was a fundamental right of a citizen under the Constitution. The hasty taking up of the case was a violation of this right.
He said there was no precedent in the judicial history of Pakistan of a petition seeking the cancellation of a murder case being filed and decided by the courts on the same day. He said a murder case could be cancelled only if no offence had been committed or no incident had taken place. In this case, he said, a man had lost his one-and-a-half-year-old son due to the criminal conduct of the doctors.
Malik said that the Healthcare Commission Act of 2010 did not apply in this case. He said that the act granted a doctor immunity from charges only if the incident occurred while the doctor was discharging her duty at the time. In this case, he said, the doctors had been on strike and had removed a drip attached to an ailing infant, causing his death.
Afzal, the grieving father, came forward at this point and made a tearful plea for justice. The judge assured him he would get justice.
The prosecutor general said that the case shouldn’t be cancelled as there was ample evidence, in the form of witness statements, corroborating the story in the FIR. He said the witnesses included a hospital clerk.
He said an order for exhumation of the boy’s body had been secured from a magistrate and cause of death would be determined in an autopsy. He said that this was not the stage to grant “the extraordinary relief of bail” to the accused doctors.
Additional Advocate General Faisal Zaman argued that the criminal proceedings could not be stopped as this would be tantamount to stifling the investigation.
Earlier, the doctors’ counsel submitted that the story in the FIR had been tailored at the behest of the Punjab government so it could have a weapon with which to hinder the YDA movement for a revised service structure. He said that Section 29 of the Healthcare Commission Act granted doctors immunity from criminal proceedings. He said that the doctors had not committed any offence as the removal or attachment of drips was the job of paramedical staff.
After hearing lengthy arguments from all sides, the court allowed the doctors interim bail and issued notice to the state for July 16.
Earlier, Judicial Magistrate Naqeeb Shehzad had remanded the four doctors in judicial custody for two weeks after their physical remand ended. He had also directed the police to submit the challan of the case as soon as possible.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2012.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ