Thread #StateVsZaheer: most unfortunate & condemnable incident took place in Hon SHC today which would only trivialize the importance of mental health & defame psychiatry. This could have been avoided by the Health Dept had they not acted in an irresponsible & cowardly manner...
On 12th Oct SHC directed Health Secretary to appoint a psychologist and psychiatrist with experience of treating children to examine the child victim in Zaheer case. On 13th Oct Health Sec notified a senior psychologist and a junior psychiatrist who only qualified a year ago...
The psychiatrist made multiple visits to Shelter Home & held sessions with the Child, she also held multiple sessions with the Parents & during course of this her behaviour began to visibly change, as she had erratic behavior & severe mood swings making us doubt her own health...
On 28th Oct the Psychiatrist started sending me and the parents of the child strange messages about global political conspiracies, world war 3 and even claimed the Child victim is now a robot who has been implanted with a chip and is being controlled by US...
On 29th Oct the Psychiatrist demanded that Child Victim be provided security by Sindh Rangers & claimed her own MS of Lyari General Hospital wants to kill her and her fellow board member i.e. Psychologist is from opposition party & that we can trust the Psychiatrist & no one else
Later on 30th Oct the Psychiatrist called Mehdi Kazmi and used unimaginable profanity about the Child and later called saying her phone is hacked and she never sent any calls or messages. A similar exchange of calls happened with me where the doctor claimed her phone is hacked...
Then invited Doctor arrived at Mehdi Kazmi's house & tried to force her way in & when not allowed she forced her way into house of his inlaws who live right opposite & left after few minutes and then arrived at my house. We immediate sent CCTV footage of this to Health Department
Then another bizarre thing was that an advanced copy of the assessment report of the Child Victim was sent to us by the Psychiatrist against professional ethics and norms with messages to Mehdi Kazmi "mujhe behn banalo main tumhari bachi ko bacha lon gi"...
I personally sent messages to Health Sec explaining him the entire situation but didn't receive a single response. Spoke with CTO of Health Dept who assigned this Dr. to our case but he only expressed helplessness, we submitted a formal complaint with Health Sec on 31st Oct...
It was evidence to us the the Psychiatrist has her own history of mental health related problems and she has been triggered by some events and is volatile and the Health Dept should step in to protect both her and integrity of the profession and inform SHC about this...
However acting in an extremely cowardly manner Health Dept chose to do nothing & allowed the Dr to appear in Court today where she created a scene and Court Police had to be called to restrain her & this time the Psychiatrist in 180 shift accused our Client for issuing threats...
We had decided for sake of the psychiatrist's own health to keep this entire episode confidential but due to failure of Health Dept a public scene was created in Court in presence of media while the CTO quietly sat in the corner of the Court and we had to regrettably intervene...
Since already a public scene was created in the Court we had to disclose to the Court the entire series of events & submitted a copy of the Complaint we had sent to Health Secretary & we have all the WhatsApp conversations of the Psychiatrist and Videos to prove our stance..
Most unfortunate thing was that the journalists outside Court saw this as an opportunity and interviewed the Doctor in her vulnerable and volatile state which will only invite public ridicule and scrutiny about the profession of psychiatry & the Dr as her identity is public now..
What is even more alarming is lack of oversight and management in Health Dept which led to this Doctor getting assigned such a sensitive case and most horrifying is that we don't know what impact this Doctor may have had on the Child during their sessions...
Had the Health Secretary acted prudently & promptly & owned up their mistake in Court, this unfortunate incident in Court today could have been avoided, the Doctors identity could have been kept secret and focus should have been providing her necessary help with her condition...
What happened instead was that in typical bureaucratic fashion the Health Secretary and Health Dept tried to escape responsibility and hoped that no untoward incident takes place. The Health Secretary should have formed a board of senior doctors and sought time from Court...
The incident today has exposed the unprofessionalism and inadequacies of our governance system and that too in the most important Department of Health. Regardless of the fact that the Psychiatrist's report favours our case, we don't want to rely on it knowing the truth...
Our professional integrity as lawyers & officers of Court doesn't allow us to hide facts from the Hon' Court we have distanced ourselves from Psychiatrist's report as she was not fit to carry mental assessment of the Child despite report's conclusion favouring us...
The only reason this detailed thread had to be written is because the Health Dept allowed for a public scene to be created and because Media has aired interview of the Psychiatrist wherein several false allegations have been made, forcing us to make public statement...
We hope the Psychiatrist in question gets the care she needs and media refrains from airing her name and identity for sake of her privacy and good health & that the Hon' Courts directs appointment of Senior Doctors for proper evaluation of the Child & an inquiry into Health Dept.
Uninvited*
@threadreaderapp unroll please. Thanks.
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