Shot for principles: Dr Kazi killed for refusing to give admission: police

Various hospitals in the city protested his killing by closing their OPDs.

KARACHI: Police investigators claimed to have made a ‘major breakthrough’ in the case pertaining to the targeted killing of the head of the pathology department of the Karachi Medical and Dental College (KMDC), Dr Javed Iqbal Kazi.

Dr Kazi was shot multiple times on February 17 by at least two men who were waiting for him outside the college. The tall and soft-spoken doctor was a staunch academician and had recently been appointed as the dean of medicine by the University of Karachi for its eight affiliated medical colleges. Though the police had already ruled out the possibilities of robbery, personal enmity and extortion threats shortly after the incident, they now claimed to have made a major breakthrough in the case.

“About three hours before the incident took place, two men and a girl visited him and asked him to grant the girl admission into KMDC,”  said a police investigator privy to the matter. “However, since the girl’s marks did not match the college’s criteria for admission, Dr Kazi refused and asked them to leave.” He said that the culprits then waited outside KMDC and killed the doctor, adding that the culprits are associated with a political party. However, he stated that the party had no links with the incident.

DSP Iftikhar Lodhi confirmed that the police have made a major breakthrough in the case but refused to provide any detail.

OPDs remain shut as doctors protest murder

Doctors across the city observed a strike in hospitals run by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to protest Dr Kazi’s murder.

KMDC, Karachi Institute of Heart Disease, Sobhraj Maternity Hospital, Spencer Eye hospital and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital were hospitals where the doctors refused to carry out their duties. The outpatient departments were also closed. “We did not close our emergency services as that would have risked the lives of our patients,” said Pakistan Medical Association Karachi secretary general Dr Qazi Wasiq. “We have three demands - to compensate the victim’s family, to arrest his murderers and to provide better protection to doctors.” Meanwhile, PMA, KMDC and KMC officials held a condolence meeting at Civic Centre to condemn the killing.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2014.