Sindh Orders Probe Into Idle Hospital Machines
The Public Accounts Committee of the Sindh Assembly has ordered an investigation into Sindh hospital machines, giving the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team one month to report on non-functional medical equipment at hospitals across the province. The Sindh hospital machines under scrutiny include X-ray, ultrasound, electrocardiogram (ECG), CT scan and MRI equipment at Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) hospitals and other facilities in the province.
The directives came during a committee meeting chaired by Nisar Khuhro on Thursday, where audit objections concerning the KMC for 2024 and 2025 were reviewed. Committee member Taha Ahmed, KMC Municipal Commissioner Abrar Ahmed Jaffar, and other officials attended the meeting. Auditors told the committee that several pieces of medical equipment were non-functional at multiple KMC hospitals, including Sobhraj Maternity Hospital.
The medical superintendent of Sobhraj Hospital informed the committee that its X-ray machine had remained out of order from 2022 to 2025, but had since been repaired and restored to working condition. Khuhro questioned why the machine had been left unrepaired for nearly four years, and he asked whether the KMC had lacked the funds to carry out the necessary maintenance. Taha Ahmed said the prolonged breakdown had caused difficulties for patients for four years, and he described the situation as administrative negligence.
Sindh hospital machines: patients pushed to private care
The problem goes beyond one X-ray machine. Taha Ahmed also raised concerns about other hospitals across Sindh, where MRI machines were reportedly either non-functional or could not be operated because of a shortage of technical staff. Patients, he alleged, were consequently forced to seek diagnostic services from private facilities, which meant paying out of pocket for tests that public hospitals should have provided free or at low cost.
Khuhro said the provincial government was allocating billions of rupees to provide free treatment and improve healthcare facilities. The prolonged failure of diagnostic equipment, he added, amounted to negligence that would not be tolerated. That contrast sits at the heart of the inquiry: large sums are budgeted for free care, yet basic diagnostic machines sat idle while patients paid elsewhere.
The committee has now directed the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team to investigate whether X-ray machines and other diagnostic equipment, including ultrasound, CT scan, MRI and ECG machines, are operational at KMC hospitals and other healthcare facilities across Sindh. The inspection team must submit its findings within one month, which gives the inquiry a clear deadline and a clear scope.
Sindh hospital machines: staff checks and biometric attendance
The committee also turned to the workforce behind the hospitals. It directed the KMC to verify the educational qualifications and physical presence of more than 10,000 employees, and to introduce a biometric attendance system to identify staff drawing salaries without reporting for duty.
Khuhro expressed concern over delays in verifying the credentials and physical presence of KMC employees. He asked the municipal commissioner to provide a report and supporting evidence regarding an earlier directive to introduce biometric attendance at the corporation. The message from the committee was plain: equipment cannot work without staff, and staff records cannot be trusted without verification.
Municipal Commissioner Abrar Ahmed Jaffar told the committee that the KMC runs 13 hospitals, and that visits were being conducted with the mayor to review the services provided to patients. Those hospitals, plus other facilities across Sindh, must all be checked within a month.
Sindh hospital machines: why the one-month deadline matters
A one-month deadline gives the inquiry urgency, but it also sets a test for the government. If the inspection team finds machines still idle, or staff still unverified, at the end of that month, the committee will have to decide what action follows. A report alone will not repair an X-ray machine or staff an MRI suite.
The inquiry also lands at a time when Sindh’s public health system is under visible strain. Karachi hospitals have reported a surge in H1N1 flu cases, which increases demand for diagnostics and beds, while Sindh’s rabies toll has reached 42, much of it handled through the same public hospitals now under scrutiny. Diagnostic capacity is not an abstract issue in that context. It decides how quickly a patient gets a diagnosis, and whether that patient must pay a private clinic instead.
