Fourteen Cradles, Fourteen Silences: The PIMS Nursery Fire and the Cost of Institutional Neglect
Fourteen Cradles, Fourteen Silences: The PIMS Nursery Fire and the Cost of Institutional Neglect HUMAN RIGHTS & PUBLIC HEALTH Fourteen Cradles, Fourteen Silences: The PIMS Nursery Fire and the Cost of Institutional Neglect By Sumair Ahmed Mahar Jaam Maud Articles · On the morning of August 26, 2026, fifteen newborns lay in the nursery of the Mother and Child Health ward at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad's largest public hospital. By the time the smoke cleared, fourteen of them were dead. One child was carried out alive. The rest never left that room. Officials say the fire began around seven in the morning on the third floor, most likely triggered by a short circuit or an exploding air-conditioner compressor in the nursery. Within minutes, the ward filled with smoke. Parents who had been sleeping on hospital lawns, waiting out the night beside their newborns, woke to screaming and ran barefoot up the stairs. What they found were blackened corr...
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