The Pathology of Negligence

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1.0 Introduction

            The Government of Punjab issued a notification to the Chief Justice, Lahore to appoint a judge to lead an inquiry to explain the numerous reported deaths. It was revealed that most of the reported deaths resulted from bone marrow suppression as well as other related complications among patients registered with the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC). In principle the tribunal had to conduct its business as per well-structured terms of reference, for instance, determine the cause(s) of death(s), to ascertain if the cause of death(s) could be attributed to drug administration at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC). And thereby get to offer recommendations for averting future incidents etc. (Judicial Inquiry Tribunal Report, 2012).

            In consequence, in the course of its investigations, the Tribunal summoned and analyzed seventy-two witnesses who collectively placed thousands of documents on record. Wang (2010) asserts that a Tribunal works by examining the accounts of events submitted by witnesses who possess the knowledge to the circumstances, facts and the causes and effects of the matter at hand. For that reason, most of the witnesses who appeared before the Tribunal were medical professionals, representatives from the WHO, pathologists, investigating agencies, members of the affected families, representatives from Efroze Chemicals, etc.

            As a matter of fact, according to the (Judicial Tribunal Inquiry Report, 2012), the Tribunal approached its investigation from three distinct areas involving the affected patients who depicted signs of medical reaction many of whom, unfortunately, died. Besides, Efroze Chemicals the manufacturer and distributor of Isotab 20 mg the drug flagged as contaminated as well as the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) acted as references of the Tribunal. As per the reports submitted to the Tribunal, it was revealed that cardiac medicine Isotab 20 mg contained an anti-malarial drug called Pyrimethamine. In consequence, this necessitated the visit of the Tribunal to the Efroze Chemical Industries in, Karachi as well as the company’s warehouses so that to determine whether the company was adhering to manufacturing practices.

2.0 Summary of key information

            Amirthalingam (2003) implies that one of the most important decisions a Tribunal can make is to appoint a qualified and capable Registrar with the experience to guide and push the Tribunal through all the phases of inquiry. As a result, the Tribunal appointed Mr. Ifran Ahmad Saeed as the Registrar to the Tribunal because of his experience in Judicial Services having served as a Registrar of two other inquiries. Concerning Tribunals of Inquiry, the Registrar plays an integral part as the Communications officers (Karunakaran, 2006). And so, Mr. Ifran Ahmed due to his vast experience in Tribunal affairs was able to interact with the media on sensitive issues, for instance, the alleged contamination of Isotab 20 mg as the cause of numerous deaths through the release of daily press briefings.

            Moreover, the Tribunal conducted its business at the Lahore High Court in the Judges Library, where an audio recording system was utilized. Thus the statements issued under oath by witnesses were dully recorded into the system for future reference. Further, the Tribunal was open to public participation, where the general public was invited at the Judges Library to provide useful information regarding the drug reactions, procurement of the cardiac drugs by PIC, the treatment process as well as any other relevant information helpful towards the course of the tribunal. Usually, according to Yang and Ci (2012), to further its investigation agenda a Tribunal invites a large number of witnesses for examination. For that reason, the witnesses summoned before the Tribunal were familiarized with the purpose of the Tribunal and as a result, they were required to present their written sworn statements in the form of affidavits before the Tribunal. Such procedure is adopted so that proceedings being conducted by the Tribunal can be regarded as transparent, well-organized with no room for vagueness (Earle, 2007; Mohantry, 2005).

            And so, according to the Judicial Tribunal Inquiry Report (2012), the Registrar was tasked with allocating interested members of the public time to appear before the Tribunal to present their affidavits as evidence. Nonetheless, due to the sensitivity of the matters at hand the Tribunal only allowed a few media personalities to the cover the proceedings at the courts so that to minimize the panic levels considering the use of the cardiac medicine had resulted in multiple reported death cases.

            Additionally, on top of the witnesses reports fortunately enough the Tribunal had at its disposal some experts from different fields...