DAWN Editorials 28th August 2026

Hospital tragedy

WHERE does one begin? The mind goes first to the parents of the 14 newborns who died early Wednesday in the Mother and Child Health Ward of Islamabad’s Pims Hospital. The heart falters at the sheer scale of their loss.

Their grief is shared across the country by people still struggling to comprehend how a tragedy of this magnitude was allowed to happen, and who must be held responsible. Multiple explanations have been offered for the fire: a short circuit, a spark, or an explosion involving an air-conditioning unit or its compressor. And every aspect of this incident unveils a new tragedy.

Officials say the purified oxygen that should have been a lifeline for infants in respiratory distress instead accelerated the blaze dramatically. Within moments, the resulting inferno claimed the lives of 14 of the 15 babies in the ward.

Eyewitnesses and parents described chaos: thick black smoke, shattered glass, locked or restricted doors, delayed rescue, and a near-total absence of proper evacuation protocols or functional fire-safety equipment. Some parents said they waited hours for help; official statements insisted fire tenders arrived within minutes of the emergency call. Rescue workers reported difficulty reaching the affected area.

Hospital officials later acknowledged that the ward was routinely kept locked to prevent the theft of newborns. Clearly, there was no contingency plan for an emergency of this nature. And that, itself, is a damning indictment of the state of public hospitals.

Equally frustrating has been the blame game that followed. Every stakeholder has been quick to point fingers even though few facts have been firmly established. The federal health secretary was swiftly suspended; scapegoated, many believe. But how far was he truly responsible? Is it fair, or even useful, to pin such disasters on individuals when the entire system remains broken? An inquiry committee has since been formed. That was necessary, and it is hoped that it will be able to diagnose the reasons that led to this tragedy. Yet, a much deeper reckoning is required.

Removing a few officials will not prevent the next hospital fire. Pims is the largest and most prominent public hospital in the federal capital. It is the place where ordinary Pakistanis turn to in sickness, injury, and the hope of new life. Public hospitals in a country as populous as Pakistan need sustained resources and consistent support if they are to deliver even a basic standard of care and safety. Whether Pims ever received that support is a question that its administrators should be expected to answer.

Until Pakistan stops chronically underspending on healthcare, the safety standards and quality of care in state-run hospitals cannot be expected to improve, and tragedies like this one will continue to claim lives. The bigger question is whether the authorities are ready to address that challenge.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2026

Pipeline impasse

THE Iran-Pakistan natural gas pipeline — a project decades in the making — is once again in the news. Lawmakers questioned the status of the stalled scheme in the Senate on Tuesday. As per the petroleum minister, the prime minister has formed a committee to find a “mutually acceptable” solution. It should be remembered that Iran has initiated arbitration proceedings in France, and Pakistan risks paying billions in penalty for not implementing the intergovernmental agreement. Pakistan’s dilemma is genuine: the country is stuck between arbitration and hefty penalties if it abandons the project, and potentially ‘secondary sanctions’ by the US if it goes ahead with it. However, considering that Iran completed its part of the pipeline in 2011, and the grace period provided to Pakistan to build its part expired in 2024, a solution should have already been found.

Pakistan needs gas, and a steady supply from its western neighbour could address the shortages it faces. However, the issue here is more than one of logistics, project funding or gas pricing. It has fundamentally become a geopolitical concern, with the potential to spoil Pakistan-Iran relations unless handled carefully. On the other hand, American threats of sanctions cannot be ignored, keeping in mind Pakistan’s fragile economic situation. Instead of kicking the issue into the long grass, and waiting for a potentially adverse and expensive arbitration decision, Pakistan must address the pipeline question proactively. A comprehensive legal approach is required that protects national interests, while also maintaining a balance in ties with Iran and the US. One option would be to talk to the US and explain that any decision on the pipeline is best guided by Pakistan’s own economic interests. The Trump administration holds the current ruling set-up in Pakistan in high esteem and this aspect, coupled with Islamabad’s role as a mediator in the US-Iran conflict, can be leveraged to soften the American stance towards the project. Abandoning the pipeline would send the wrong message. The Iranians should also be kept in the loop to find a mutually beneficial way out. The destructive American and Israeli wars in the region will end one day. But Pakistan and its neighbours cannot change their geography, and must work to enhance friendship and trust.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2026

Lagging exports

WHEN the Senate committee met on Tuesday to ask trade officials why exports were not growing, they received a non-answer: the fault lay elsewhere. The TDAP chief executive set the tone, arguing that his organisation is blamed whenever exports stagnate. He indicated that the real culprits were electricity tariffs, financing costs and production expenses. No doubt, there is truth in this. But if the head of the TDAP, which exists to promote trade, is effectively telling legislators that promotion counts for little against the cost of doing business, the obvious question is what the organisation is for. The trade minister did not help either when he told the panel that he had advised the prime minister to pursue “reciprocal incentives”, a phrase vague enough to mean almost anything and yet nothing. Pakistan’s export base has been narrow and stagnant under successive commerce ministers who have all, at some point, said something similar.

Numbers were offered by trade officials as evidence of their efforts to increase shipments: 91 exhibitions, 11 delegations and preferential arrangements with 93 countries. However, none of this means very much. A country can attend every trade fair on the calendar and still lose market share if what it is selling has not diversified in structure or value addition. The committee would have done more for exporters by asking what came out of those 91 exhibitions in actual contracts and market entries than by letting the figure stand in for performance. In fact, there is little indication that the committee pushed back robustly against the claims and explanations. A parliamentary panel exists to interrogate the executive, not to serve as a stage for it to read its own press release into the record. Welcoming the TDAP’s efforts while talking about the need for a strategy to boost the country’s exports reflects a sorry reality: everyone agrees on the diagnosis, but nobody in government is willing to take responsibility and make an effort to cure the problem.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2026