A medical tribunal has set aside disciplinary sanctions imposed on four senior forensic experts involved in the exhumation and post-mortem examination of a landlord in Sindh, ruling that scientific limitations in determining the cause of death cannot be treated as professional misconduct or negligence.
The verdict, announced on June 4 by a tribunal comprising retired justices Safdar Saleem Shahid and Azam Qambrani, along with technical member Dr Minhajus Siraj, has been described as a significant precedent in defining the boundaries of professional liability in forensic medicine.
The case originated from disciplinary proceedings initiated by the former Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC), now the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), against members of a special medical board constituted by the Sindh government to examine the death of Faisal Mugheri, a young landlord from Jacobabad who died under unexplained circumstances in 2020.
Initially, no foul play was reported by family members, but later, his second wife approached the court alleging murder and sought exhumation of the body.
Acting on a judicial order, a panel of forensic specialists conducted an exhumation and post-mortem examination approximately 45 days after burial.
However, due to advanced decomposition of the body—a well-known limiting factor in forensic pathology—the medical board was unable to determine a definitive cause of death.
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