By: Musawir Qureshi
A few days ago, a newborn baby went missing from Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), the largest government hospital in Peshawar.
Recently, a video of a daily-wage laborer named Hashmat surfaced on social media. According to Hashmat, his mother and brother took his pregnant wife to Lady Reading Hospital for childbirth. The woman was admitted to the maternity ward.
Later, Hashmat’s brother called him and congratulated him, telling him that he had been blessed with a baby boy.
But the happiness did not last long.
Late at night, the family was informed that the baby was no longer in the hospital and had gone missing.
Hashmat says that he rushed to the hospital and searched everywhere for his child, but there was no trace of him. He also claims that some officials on duty behaved rudely toward him and told him to take his wife home.
It is deeply distressing that if a poor father’s newborn child goes missing from a hospital, and instead of receiving sympathy and assistance, he is pushed around, where is he supposed to go for justice?
Hashmat is a daily-wage laborer. He says that if he does not work for even one day, his family faces difficulties in arranging food. One can imagine how difficult it must be for such a person to make daily visits to police stations, courts, and government offices. Those sitting in large offices may not understand this hardship, but a poor person does.
He had brought his wife to a government hospital with the hope that she would receive medical care and that his newborn child would remain safe.
But how could he have imagined that the very place where he believed his child would be protected would become the place from which his baby would disappear?
A spokesperson for Lady Reading Hospital has confirmed the incident, saying that the disappearance of the baby from the labor room is a matter of concern and that police are investigating. The hospital administration has also provided CCTV footage to the police, while police are reportedly searching for a suspicious woman.
If CCTV footage is available, there should be hope that the investigation will not remain limited to paperwork and that the truth will be brought before the public.
But the issue is not limited to this one incident at LRH.
Reports of children going missing from various government hospitals in Peshawar, including Lady Reading Hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex, and Khyber Teaching Hospital, have surfaced in the past as well.
A few months ago, a nurse associated with Hayatabad Medical Complex held a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club and made serious allegations regarding the illegal acquisition and sale of children, along with other irregularities at the hospital.
Whether those allegations were true or false should have been determined through an investigation.
But the question is: How far did that investigation go?
Was any complete report made public?
Was anyone held responsible?
Was any action taken against anyone?
Or, as so often happens, was a committee formed, a few meetings held, the files closed, and the matter eventually forgotten by the public?
This is one of the biggest tragedies of our system.
An incident occurs, public outrage follows, a committee is formed, an investigation is announced, and then silence takes over.
But there is still no answer as to where the poor child went.
Similarly, just a few days ago, a doctor associated with Hayat Sherpao Hospital also alleged that patients were being subjected to inhumane treatment and raised other concerns about irregularities at the hospital. The hospital administration rejected these allegations and, in turn, accused the doctor of corruption.
Now the question is: Who is telling the truth?
The doctor?
Or the administration?
This should not be decided through accusations and counter-accusations, but through a transparent and impartial investigation.
Unfortunately, in our society, the system often appears to work differently for the powerful and the poor. A person with authority, connections, or resources can make his voice heard far and wide, while the complaint of a poor person often struggles to get beyond the doors of a police station.
But government hospitals are not the private property of any officer, politician, or influential person.
They belong to the people.
A poor laborer seeking treatment there deserves the same dignity, protection, and justice as an affluent or influential person.
The recent incident at Lady Reading Hospital requires answers to several fundamental questions:
How did an unauthorized woman enter an extremely sensitive area such as the labor room?
If CCTV cameras were installed, why was the area not properly monitored?
Where is the record of the baby’s care and handover after birth?
When did the hospital administration become aware that the baby was missing?
If a suspicious woman entered the hospital, where was the staff responsible for stopping her?
And most importantly: Who will bring this poor father’s child back?
The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Health Department, senior police officials, and the hospital administration must take this incident seriously rather than treating it as just another routine case.
If the child was abducted, he must be recovered immediately.
If negligence caused the child to go missing, those responsible must be identified and held accountable.
And if there is any suspicion of an organized criminal network, the matter must be investigated thoroughly and brought to its logical conclusion.
At the same time, the security arrangements of the labor rooms, nurseries, and pediatric wards of all major government hospitals in Peshawar should be reviewed. Entry and exit records, identification systems, CCTV monitoring, and procedures for handing over newborn babies to their families should be strengthened.
Because this is not only about Hashmat’s child.
It is about every child of every poor father who considers a government hospital his last hope.
If a mother cannot even consider her newborn child safe inside a government hospital, then where are poor people supposed to go?
