On August 26, 2026, a fire broke out in the nursery of the Mother and Child Centre at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad, reportedly caused by an air-conditioning unit explosion. Fourteen newborns, most only days old, lost their lives; only one infant was rescued. This poem is written in their memory, and in anger at a negligence that turned a place meant to shelter new life into the site of its ending.
Burnt Babies,
They are in heaven now
They were as sinless as the prophets,
Who came with your message?
Why did you send these little souls
Only to call them back again?
Were they too precious
For you to part with?
Or did they also have a message
They delivered
As they were delivered?
Yes, they delivered your message
Only too clearly.
But not loud enough to reach
The determinedly deaf.
Maybe the flames got in the way.
Maybe their games got in the way.
And down here
They will have their way
With freshly pressed handkerchiefs
Wiping a tear away.
Poet : Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi
