Pakistan suspends eight officials, orders criminal cases over hospital fire that killed 14 newborns

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif ordered the immediate suspension of eight officials and directed criminal proceedings against them over a fire that killed 14 newborns at a public hospital in the capital, his office said Saturday.

The order followed an interim report from a government inquiry committee into the Aug. 26 fire in a nursery on the third floor of the Mother and Child Health ward at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, or PIMS, one of Islamabad’s largest public hospitals. The committee’s report was presented to Sharif at a meeting in Lahore, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.

Those named include the hospital’s executive director, two joint executive directors, the head of its neonatal department, two other doctors, its assistant director for security, and the director general of emergency services at the Capital Development Authority, the civic body responsible for fire safety in Islamabad. The prime minister also approved action against the private security firm contracted to the hospital and its staff, and directed that the vacated posts be filled immediately.

Sharif said those found responsible for criminal negligence would be prosecuted without exception. “The death of innocent children is a tragic incident over which the entire nation is grieving,” he said, according to his office, adding that he stood with the bereaved families.

What the inquiry found

The interim report said the fire became visible at about 6:38 a.m. on Aug. 26 and spread with what the committee called extraordinary speed, filling the nursery with smoke within roughly two minutes. Of 15 infants in the nursery, one was rescued; hospital staff said four more babies and three mothers were evacuated from an adjacent room.

The inquiry found the nursery had no fire alarm or sprinkler system, and that supervisory staff were not on duty when the fire began; two nurses, a female security guard and a house officer were present in the ward at the time. Of the hospital’s 13 standard operating procedures, only two subsections referred to fire or other emergencies, the report said, even though the security department’s own 2023 protocol had assigned the assistant director for security responsibility for fire exits, firefighting equipment and staff training.

The report also said the Capital Emergency Service, the body responsible for fire safety at PIMS, failed to act on systemic problems flagged after an earlier fire at the hospital in July 2026, and did not press for fire drills or updated procedures. It recommended the immediate suspension of the CDA’s emergency services director general and the hospital’s assistant director for security for dereliction of duty.

The committee said it reviewed closed-circuit camera footage and found that on-duty doctors and nurses did not abandon the infants but attempted a rescue, contradicting some early accounts. It said the precise point of ignition had not yet been established.

Disputed cause

Officials have given differing explanations for what triggered the fire. PIMS said in a preliminary account that a spark inside the nursery ignited a blaze that intensified within seconds because of oxygen points at each incubator. Health Minister Mustafa Kamal said an electrical fault sparked from an air conditioning unit, and that oxygen tanks in use for the infants worsened the blaze; a hospital spokeswoman gave a similar account to Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper. Rescue officials cited by CNN pointed to a compressor explosion in an air-conditioning unit as the likely trigger.

A parliamentary health committee questioned that account. Its chairperson, Mahesh Kumar Malani, told reporters the identified air conditioner had not been in use for some time and that the source of the fire remained unconfirmed, raising the possibility of a broader technical fault. The interim inquiry report likewise left the exact ignition source unresolved.

Some witnesses told AFP that emergency responders took hours to arrive, that exit doors were locked, and that people broke windows themselves to reach those trapped inside. Hospital and government officials have disputed accounts of a delayed response, saying on-duty staff and security personnel attempted rescues within a minute of the fire being detected, before a blast brought down part of the ceiling.

Background

Sharif dismissed Health Secretary Muhammad Aslam Ghauri, the health ministry’s top civil servant, shortly after the fire and formed the inquiry committee, headed by retired senior civil servant Shahid Khan. A separate seven-member fact-finding panel was also convened by the Islamabad district magistrate.

The government has announced compensation of 5 million rupees, about $18,000, for each bereaved family. The Pakistan Medical Association called for what it termed a restructuring of health regulatory bodies following the fire. In Punjab, the country’s most populous province, authorities ordered a review of fire-safety systems and equipment at hospitals this week.

The PIMS fire was one of several recent incidents involving child deaths in Pakistan. In June 2024, a fire linked to hospital air-conditioning equipment killed 11 infants at Sahiwal Teaching Hospital in Punjab. In June of this year, 14 schoolchildren died when the roof of a tutoring center under construction collapsed in Lahore.

What follows

The eight suspended officials face both departmental and criminal proceedings, though the prime minister’s office has not said which specific charges will be filed or against whom. The interim report is not final; the inquiry committee’s full findings, including a definitive cause of the fire, had not been released as of Saturday. Accounts of how quickly emergency responders reached the ward, and whether exits were locked, remain disputed between witnesses and hospital officials and had not been independently resolved.

Sources

Suspension order, names of officials and the prime minister’s statement are drawn from Pakistani outlets citing the Prime Minister’s Office; the interim inquiry’s findings are drawn from Geo News’ report on the committee document. Disputed-cause and eyewitness accounts are drawn from Dawn, Arab News, CNN and Al Jazeera, which cite differing officials and witnesses.

Wire services and international press

• CNN, “8 officials suspended after probe into Pakistan hospital fire that killed 14 newborns.” https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/29/asia/pakistan-suspended-hospital-fire-newborns-latam-intl
• CNN, “Islamabad hospital fire kills at least 14 newborn babies in Pakistan’s capital.” https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/26/asia/pakistan-newborns-hospital-fire-intl-hnk
• Arab News, “Cause of deadly Islamabad hospital fire unclear, nursery unfit for babies — lawmakers panel.” https://www.arabnews.com/node/2656004/pakistan
• Al Jazeera, “Locked inside: Grief and anger as Pakistan hospital fire kills 14 newborns.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/26/locked-inside-grief-and-anger-as-pakistan-hospital-fire-kills-14-newborns

Local press (proceedings and documents)

• Dawn, “14 infants killed in fire at Pims’ gynae ward in Islamabad.” https://www.dawn.com/news/2025385
• Dawn, “NA health panel visits Pims, says fire in nursery may have been caused by ‘technical fault’.” https://www.dawn.com/news/amp/2025490
• Geo News, “‘Precise cause’ of deadly Pims fire still unclear, says interim inquiry report.” https://www.geo.tv/latest/679800-precise-cause-of-deadly-pims-fire-still-unclear-says-interim-inquiry-report
• Geo News, “Pims tragedy: PM orders suspension, criminal proceedings against eight named in inquiry.” https://www.geo.tv/latest/679778-pims-tragedy-pm-orders-suspension-criminal-proceedings-against-eight-named-in-inquiry
• Pakistan Today, “PIMS Fire: PM suspends 8 officials, orders criminal cases.” https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2026/08/30/pims-fire-pm-suspends-eight-officials-orders-criminal-proceedings-following-interim-probe

Background and prior proceedings

• Dawn, “Hospital tragedy” (editorial, background on prior scrutiny). https://www.dawn.com/news/2025672/hospital-tragedy
• Al Jazeera, background on the 2024 Sahiwal Teaching Hospital fire, cited within the Aug. 26, 2026 report above.

Editor’s note on sourcing Reports differ on exactly how many infants staff rescued beyond the one baby saved from the nursery itself — PIMS’s own statement cites four additional infants and three mothers moved from an adjacent room, a detail not repeated by all outlets, so it is presented here as the hospital’s account rather than a confirmed total. Some outlets name a third joint executive director differently (“Owais Ali Shah” versus “Waris Ali Raza” in one Geo News report); this article uses the name that recurs across the majority of sources (Owais Ali Shah). Claims about locked doors and a delayed emergency response rest on witness accounts to AFP and are disputed by hospital and government officials; both versions are presented and neither is stated as fact. Details of what specific criminal charges, if any, have been filed against the eight named officials were not available in the reporting reviewed and are omitted pending confirmation.