Belated measures: PIMS improves surveillance at children’s ward

11 CCTV cameras installed; female security guards hired.

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on Monday installed 11 CCTV cameras and hired five female security guards at its Maternal Neonatal Child Health (MNCH) department in the aftermath of the abduction of a newborn boy on Friday.

The police have so far failed to recover the baby or find the unidentified woman who allegedly kidnapped the child.

On the other hand, Shazia Zia, mother of the newborn, refused to be discharged from the hospital without her child.

Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) Pims Vice-Chancellor Prof Javed Akram while talking to The Express Tribune said the hospital administration had installed 11 CCTV cameras in the MNCH and hired five female security guards on an urgent basis.

“We will install 187 more CCTV cameras soon to strengthen security of every department of the hospital,” he said.

“The hospital administration has also announced a prize of Rs200,000 for any person who will find the baby or the kidnapper,” Akram said.

Zia, who is a teacher at a federal government school in the capital, said “It is impossible for me to go home without my baby.”

She added that it was their first child and the entire family was waiting to welcome him at home.

“I have a feeling that if I will leave the hospital likes this [before my baby is recovered] than all the investigation will stop and no one will take the pain to find my baby,” the aggrieved teacher said.

Zia informed that with the help of the police, they had made a rough sketch of the kidnapper and hoped that it would help locate her son.

Atiqur Rehman, a maternal uncle of the baby, informed The Express Tribune that they had constituted a committee to keep a check on the police in their investigation into the case.

“We have given police two days, if they fail to find the baby than we will hold massive protests across the capital,” he said.

When contacted, an official at Margalla Police Station said so far police had not been able to find any clue about the baby’s whereabouts.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2015.