Team probing Wahab's death questions her physicians

Nine member team arrives in Karachi.

KARACHI: A nine-member team of doctors, charged with investigating the reasons behind Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Fauzia Wahab’s death, reached Karachi on Tuesday.

The team consists of Director General Health Islamabad Dr Qazi Abdus Saboor, Director of the Federal Investigations Agency (FIA), Joint Executive Director of Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre Dr Seemin Jamali, and Orhopedician Dr Mahboob including others. They will question the physicians who were tasked with Wahab’s care at the Orthopaedic and Medical Institute (OMI).

The team spoke to Dr Badar Siddiqui, Prof. Shakeelur Rehman, Prof. Tipu Sultan and five other physicians who tended to Wahab. According to some sources, their report is almost complete.

The politician had been admitted at the private hospice for a gall bladder surgery but subsequently stayed admitted at the hospitals for 23 days owing to complications that developed after her primary surgery. She had three operations in total until she finally died of multiple organ failure on June 17 at the hospital.

Immediately after her death, the FIA had seized all records of treatment at the hospital and started investigations on the directives of senior PPP leaders. Former Interior Minister Rehman Malik had even suggested that doctors over the age of 60 should not be allowed to perform surgeries.

The doctor’s community, however, strongly opposed moves by the government to pin the blame for Wahab’s death on her physicians.