Fourteen newborns died in a maternity ward at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) fire. Like every disaster before it, we will mourn them and then forget the lessons they died to teach us. We manage the inquiry; we do not learn from the past. We punish a few individuals; we do not make the reforms necessary to prevent the next catastrophe. And so, we continue to face preventable disasters month after month.
There are few griefs heavier than this. Imagine the pain of a parent who arrives at a hospital carrying generations of hope and returns home with a coffin. For the fourteen families who lost their newborns in the recent fire at PIMS in Islamabad, the trauma is immeasurable. These were mothers who had endured months of pregnancy, counted the days and, in many cases, chosen names. In a matter of minutes, incubators meant to shelter fragile new life became the setting for its destruction.
No compensation cheque, official condolence or fact-finding committee report can lessen a mother's grief. This is not the first such incident in Pakistan. It repeats almost every season, with only the type of disaster, names and locations changing. We face similar tragedies almost every month: overloaded boats sink and claim lives because basic safety measures are ignored; poorly manufactured gas cylinders explode in homes, vehicles and restaurants; and shopping centres catch fire because basic building-safety protocols are absent or unenforced.
Just a few weeks ago, several tourists drowned when a recreational boat capsized at Saifullah Lake in Kalam. Two months earlier, children were crushed to death when the roof of a building collapsed in Lahore. Not long before that, the Gul Plaza fire in Karachi claimed multiple lives and left many injured. Such tragedies have become disturbingly routine.
Each of these disasters shares a common feature. They are not truly “accidents” in the sense of unforeseeable acts of fate. They are often predictable outcomes of negligence, weak regulation and the absence of enforcement, despite the existence of regulators whose responsibility is to take preventive measures.
We manage the inquiry; we do not learn from it. We punish a few individuals; we do not reform institutions.
The fire that killed newborns may ultimately be traced to some combination of faulty wiring, poorly maintained electrical systems, absent or non-functional fire-suppression equipment and staff inadequately trained for emergencies. Somewhere, responsibility for each of these safeguards existed on paper. Somewhere, that responsibility was not enforced.
Here lies the real tragedy beneath the tragedy: a failure of governance. In functioning states, a disaster of this magnitude can become a turning point; an opportunity to examine the entire system, identify every gap and rebuild it so that the catastrophe cannot happen again.
Consider how developed countries respond. After the Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017, Britain conducted a years-long independent public inquiry that examined not only the building itself but the wider regulatory chain, including manufacturers, building-management practices and government oversight. The tragedy prompted major changes to building-safety policy and regulation.
Similarly, when serious aviation accidents occur in the United States or Europe, investigators examine root causes, safety procedures are reassessed and, where necessary, aircraft, components or entire fleets can be grounded while regulators determine whether systemic risks exist. The principle is simple: a death should not be wasted. It should compel the state to fix the failures that endangered those who died and protect those who come after them.
In Pakistan, however, we repeatedly adopt the same reactive approach. When disaster strikes, the machinery of the state springs into action to demonstrate that something is being done. A committee is constituted, often with a deadline of 24 or 48 hours. A minister expresses deep grief and sorrow. Compensation is announced for the victims' families. A few junior officers are suspended, transferred or arrested.
The inquiry report, if it is ever completed, is quietly shelved, rarely made public and almost never implemented. Within weeks, the news cycle moves on, while the systemic weaknesses that caused the disaster remain exactly where they were, waiting for their next victims. We manage the inquiry; we do not learn from it. We punish a few individuals; we do not reform institutions. This is the crux of our failure. Real safety is not produced by sympathy. It is produced by serious policy, effective regulation and consistent enforcement.
Every public building should have mandatory fire-safety systems that are independently audited and maintained according to fixed schedules, rather than merely certified through paperwork. Building laws and safety codes must be reviewed and strengthened where necessary. Emergency-response training should be mandatory in public institutions, particularly hospitals, schools, shelters and, above all, neonatal and maternity wards.
Above all, accountability must begin at the top; with those responsible for developing, approving and enforcing regulations. As long as the only people punished are those who happened to be on duty when disaster struck, while officials who controlled budgets, approved contracts, waived inspections or ignored systemic risks remain untouched, little will change.
If the deaths of these fourteen newborns are to mean anything, they must break this cycle. The inquiry into the PIMS fire must therefore go beyond the duty roster. It must trace responsibility through the entire chain of decision-making; from maintenance and procurement to inspections, budgets, regulatory oversight and institutional leadership. Its findings should be made public, and its recommendations should have clear timelines and identifiable officials responsible for implementation.
Until we develop the institutional will to fix systems rather than merely assign blame, we will keep gathering at gravesides, offering the same hollow condolences and waiting, with grim certainty, for the next preventable tragedy. Our children deserve a state that protects them in the incubator, not one that only mourns them at the grave.