On Wednesday, a woman died on the operating table in Sahiwal. The surgery, reportedly routine, was carried out by a doctor aided by seven paramedical staff; none of whom, police now allege, were qualified to perform the procedure. The clinic has been sealed, and FIRs registered. But for the grieving family, none of this changes the fact that a preventable death has now become another file in a system where accountability is rarely the outcome.
The Punjab Healthcare Commission’s own records show how widespread this problem is. More than 23,000 healthcare facilities in the province have been declared unlicensed or illegal in the last five years. Many continue to operate. Even in 2023, over 7,000 flagged clinics remained active. The line between medical care and malpractice, between a licensed professional and a self-appointed one, is blurred in plain sight.
Last year, in the same city, 11 newborns died in a fire at the government-run District Headquarters Hospital. The paediatric ward lacked functioning extinguishers. The deaths of 20 children – mostly newborns – at DHQ Pakpattan had already raised serious questions about basic competence. In Rawalpindi, a child bled to death this year after an untrained dentist attempted a tooth extraction at a roadside clinic. In dozens of towns, patients who enter private hospitals with minor injuries often leave in body bags; casualties of negligence that is no longer individual, but institutional.
Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s government has acknowledged the scale of the problem. In recent weeks, her administration has announced a series of reforms: nursing and midwife training programmes, the recruitment of paramedics, and a digital audit of hospital infrastructure. But without strict enforcement, even the most ambitious plans risk being reduced to ceremony. In rural Punjab, clinics that have been ordered shut routinely reopen. Licenses continue to be forged, while complaints disappear into bureaucratic dead ends.
Medical negligence in Pakistan rarely ends in conviction. Fines are modest as cases languish in courtrooms for years. And for families who lose loved ones, the pursuit of justice often goes nowhere.
The woman in Sahiwal was not a statistic. She sought care and never came home. Ergo, her story cannot end with a press release.
If this government is serious, it will start by doing what others have not: shutting down unsafe clinics and keeping them closed.
